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A Raisin in the Sun
• When Written: 1950s
INTR
INTRODUCTION
ODUCTION
• Where Written: New York City
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF LORRAINE HANSBERRY
Hansberry was raised in an African-American middle-class
family with activist foundations. The granddaughter of a slave
and the niece of a prominent African-American professor,
Hansberry grew up with a keen awareness of African-American
history and the ongoing struggle for civil rights. In 1938
Hansberry’s family moved to an all-white neighborhood in
Chicago and suffered violent attacks from neighbors, who had
signed a restrictive covenant to exclude black families from the
community. Hansberry’s family fought the covenant all the way
to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the Hansberrys
in 1940. Hansberry attended the University of Wisconsin for
several years before dropping out and moving to New York in
1950 to pursue writing and social activism. Hansberry’s bestknown work, A Raisin in the Sun, premiered in 1959, making her
the first African-American female playwright to have a play
produced on Broadway. Hansberry died of pancreatic cancer at
34, in 1965.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
In the 1920s and 30s the discriminatory “Jim Crow” laws in the
South prompted many African Americans to relocate to
Northern cities, a movement called the Great Migration.
Nonetheless, while the North did not have laws demanding
policies of segregation be followed, discrimination persisted
also in the North, leading to segregated housing, education, and
employment. In 1949 the United States Congress passed the
National Housing Act to address substandard housing and to
provide adequate and more integrated housing options for
minorities. In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board
of Education that school segregation was unconstitutional.
• When Published: The play premiered on Broadway on
March 11, 1959. Random House published the play in 1959.
• Literary Period: Social Realism
• Genre: Dramatic stage play
• Setting: Chicago’s South Side, sometime between 1945 and
1959
• Climax: Walter Lee loses the family’s insurance payment in
an investment scheme.
• Antagonist: Karl Lindner and the Clybourne Park
Improvement Association; racial prejudice and economic
hardship
EXTRA CREDIT
A Raisin in the Spotlight A Raisin in the Sun inspired several
adaptations, including a Tony Award-winning musical. Partly
written by the Lorraine Hansberry’s ex-husband Robert
Nemiroff, after her death, Raisin added song and dance to the
Youngers’ story, winning the 1973 Tony Award for Best
Musical. More loosely based on the original story, the play
Clybourne P
Park
ark tells the story of the white family that sells its
house to the Youngers. With its first act set in 1959 and its
second act set in 2009, Clybourne P
Park
ark tracks the development
of the neighborhood and its residents over fifty years.
Mother to Son Hansberry originally titled the play, The Crystal
Stair, a name that, like A Raisin in the Sun, comes from a
Langston Hughes poem. The poem, called “Mother to Son,”
speaks to the hardships that many African-American families
have faced: “Well, son, I’ll tell you: / Life for me ain’t been no
crystal stair / . . . But all the time / I’se been a-climbin’ on.”
PL
PLO
OT SUMMARY
RELATED LITERARY WORKS
Richard Wright’s novel Nativ
Nativee Son (1940) describes the life of
Bigger Thomas, a poor African-American man who lives in
Chicago’s South Side in the 1930s. Wright’s autobiography
Black Boy (1945) discusses the author’s experience of racial
discrimination and poverty in twentieth-century Chicago.
James Baldwin’s Notes of a Nativ
Nativee Son (1955) and Ralph
Ellison’s In
Invisible
visible Man (1952) explore urban African-American
life, the question of assimilation, and the realities of Northern
racism.
KEY FACTS
• Full Title: A Raisin in the Sun
©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007
A Raisin in the Sun examines the effects of racial prejudice on
the fulfillment of an African-American family’s dreams. The play
centers on the Youngers, a working-class family that lives in
Chicago’s South Side during the mid-twentieth century. Shortly
before the play begins, the head of the Younger family, Big
Walter, dies, leaving the family to inherit a $10,000 life
insurance payment. The family eagerly awaits the arrival of
the insurance check, which has the potential to make the
family’s long deferred dreams into reality. However, the
members of the Younger family have conflicting
ideas—conflicting dreams—regarding the best use for the
money, which causes tension.
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At the beginning of the play Mama, Big Walter’s widow,
expresses uncertainty regarding the best use for the money.
Mama tells her daughter-in-law, Ruth, that she and her late
husband shared the dream of owning a house, but that poverty
and racism prevented them from fulfilling this dream during Big
Walter’s lifetime. Mama’s daughter, Beneatha, aspires to attend
medical school and become a doctor, a considerable challenge
for an African-American woman at that time. Beneatha’s older
brother, Walter Lee, belittles his sister’s dream, instead
suggesting that she simply get married. Walter wants to use the
insurance payment as an investment in a liquor store, an idea
that Mama and his wife Ruth both dislike. Ruth, worried about
her troubled marriage and the family’s cramped living situation,
shares Mama’s hope for a house, although she is willing to
support her husband’s dream because, as she tells Mama, “He
needs this chance.” Walter finds his job as a white man’s
chauffeur demeaning and he sees the liquor store investment
as the only path towards a better future.
On the same day that the check arrives, Ruth finds out that she
is pregnant, which makes her question whether the family can
afford to raise another child. Knowing that Ruth is considering
an abortion, Mama begs Walter to convince his wife to keep the
baby. Walter is unable to say anything and leaves the
apartment. As Mama watches her family “falling apart,” she
makes the decision to place a down payment on a home in the
white neighborhood of Clybourne Park, hoping that her choice
to “do something bigger” will bring the family together.
Mama’s decision to purchase a house only sends Walter deeper
into despair as he sees the opportunity to fulfill his dream
disappear. On the other hand, the new house fills Ruth with joy
and hope for her family, helping her to imagine the possibility of
a happy future for her unborn child. Several weeks later, Walter
continues to grow more despondent and skips work three days
in a row. As Mama realizes that “I been doing to you what the
rest of the world been doing to you,” she decides to transfer
control of the household and the rest of the insurance money
to Walter, asking only that he set aside a portion for Beneatha’s
schooling. Mama’s decision reinvigorates Walter.
A week later, the family is happily preparing for its move when
Karl Lindner arrives and tells them of Clybourne Park’s offer to
buy their new home as a way to dissuade the family from
moving to the neighborhood. The family confidently refuses the
offer. Moments later, Walter’s friend Bobo enters and tells
Walter that Willy Harris has disappeared with the liquor store
investment. Without heeding Mama’s advice, Walter had
invested the entirety of the insurance money in the liquor
store, and the loss leaves the family on the brink of financial
ruin.
An hour later, the Nigerian student Joseph Asagai visits
Beneatha and finds her distraught over the lost money. Asagai
asks Beneatha to marry him and “come home” to Africa with
him, a sudden proposal that Beneatha says she will need to
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consider. Soon after, Walter informs the family that he will
accept Lindner’s offer, which greatly disappoints them.
However, as Walter and his son, Travis, face Lindner, Walter
reclaims his dignity and refuses Lindner’s offer. Excited but well
aware of the dangers that await them, the Youngers leave their
apartment and head to their new home.
CHARA
CHARACTERS
CTERS
MAJOR CHARACTERS
Lena Y
Younger
ounger (Mama) – The matriarch of the Younger family,
Lena, commonly referred to as “Mama,” is Walter Lee and
Beneatha’s mother and Travis’ grandmother. Lena is a “fullbodied and strong” woman in her early sixties with a subtle air
of “grace and beauty.” Lena possesses the “noble bearing” of a
woman of “Southwest Africa,” although her speech “is as
careless as her carriage is precise.” Mama takes great pride in
her family and works as a domestic maid to help support them.
A devout Christian, Lena is a woman of traditional values who
dreams of buying a house for her family.
Walter LLee
ee Y
Younger
ounger – Mama’s oldest child and Beneatha’s
brother. Walter is married to Ruth and is Travis’ father. Walter
is a “lean, intense young man” in his mid-thirties and “nervous
movements and erratic speech habits” characterize his
behavior. Walter hopes to use the insurance money as an
investment in a liquor store, which would fulfill his dream of
becoming a business owner who can support his family. Walter
finds his dead-end job as a chauffeur to be emasculating.
Walter struggles to define his position within the family and
Mama’s eventual decision to make him head of the household
refortifies his personal identity.
Beneatha Y
Younger
ounger – Nicknamed “Bennie,” Beneatha is Mama’s
daughter and Walter Lee’s younger sister. A twenty-year-old
college student with dreams of becoming a doctor, Beneatha is
“as slim and intense as her brother,” with an “intellectual face.”
Beneatha holds modern views on gender and shows great
interest in her African heritage. The most educated member of
the Younger family, Beneatha is not afraid to butt heads with
Mama, Walter, and others when it comes to her opinions on
religion, feminism, and racial assimilation. She dreams of
becoming a doctor, and believes that she should have the right
to express herself, a concept foreign to the other women in the
play. Beneatha’s way of speaking is different from the rest of
her family’s speech, characterized by her education and a
Midwestern rather than a Southern accent.
Ruth Y
Younger
ounger – Walter Lee’s wife and Travis’ mother. About
thirty years old, Ruth was once “exceptionally” pretty, although
an air of “disappointment has already begun to hang in her
face.” Her demeanor indicates that life has delivered “little that
she expected,” and, as Walter says, she is “tired” of living in their
cramped apartment. Like Mama, Ruth works as a domestic
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maid and also does much of the cooking and cleaning in the
Youngers’ home. Deeply dedicated to her family, Ruth tries to
repair her failing marriage with Walter and worries about
Travis’ childhood in the South Side ghetto. Aware of the
emotional strains and economic demands on the family, Ruth
contemplates having an abortion when it becomes clear that
she has become unexpectedly pregnant during the play,
although she decides against it. Ruth shares Mama’s dream of
purchasing a home for the family.
Travis Y
Younger
ounger – The son of Walter Lee and Ruth, Travis is the
youngest member of the family. A “sturdy, handsome” boy of
about ten years old, Travis sleeps on a make-down bed in the
Youngers’ living room. Travis is a good-natured and persistent
young boy who, for the most part, obeys his parents and
grandmother. Travis is excited by the prospect of moving into
the Youngers’ new house.
Joseph Asagai – A Nigerian man studying in Chicago, Joseph
Asagai is a student who Beneatha met on her college campus.
Asagai is a “rather dramatic-looking” young man who takes
great pride in his African heritage and dreams of Nigerian
independence from colonial rule. Asagai is thoughtful and wellspoken and he fosters Beneatha’s interest in her African roots.
At the play’s end, Asagai asks Beneatha to marry him and “come
home” to Africa.
George Murchison – A wealthy young man who dates
Beneatha. Raised in a well-to-do black family, George is
somewhat shallow and conceited, taking great pride in his
family’s social status and his ability to make highbrow cultural
references. In addition to his wealth George is good-looking,
and the Youngers approve of his relationship with Beneatha,
although her interest in him is never strong and fades during
the course of the play. Unlike Asagai, George does not pride
himself on his African heritage and he isn’t interested in
Beneatha’s intellect.
Karl Lindner – The only white character to appear onstage
during the play, Karl Lindner is a representative of the
Clybourne Park Improvement Association, which seeks to
dissuade the Youngers from moving to its all-white
neighborhood. Lindner is a “quiet-looking middle-aged” man
who, when describing Clybourne Park’s offer to the Youngers,
insists in vain, “that race prejudice simply doesn’t enter into it.”
Mrs. Johnson – The Youngers’ meddling neighbor in their
apartment in Chicago’s South Side. A “rather squeaky wideeyed lady of no particular age,” Mrs. Johnson is a noisy neighbor
who takes a voyeuristic interest in the Youngers’ decision to
move to all-white Clybourne Park – a decision that she takes to
be practically suicidal.
Walter Y
Younger
ounger (Big W
Walter)
alter) – Lena Younger’s recently
deceased husband and the father of Walter Lee and Beneatha.
Big Walter’s death provides the family with an insurance
payment of $10,000, part of which serves as the down
©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007
payment on the Youngers’ new home. Although he was “hardheaded, mean, [and] kind of wild with women,” Big Walter “sure
loved his children” and practically “kill[ed] himself” working to
provide for his family. Big Walter shared his wife’s dream of
buying a house.
Willy Harris – Never appearing onstage, Willy Harris is Walter
Lee’s supposed friend and business partner. Willy Harris
swindles Walter Lee and Bobo out of their investments in the
liquor store, disappearing with the money and leaving Walter in
a state of despair and financial ruin. From the start, Ruth
dislikes and distrusts Harris, calling him a “good-for-nothing
loudmouth.”
MINOR CHARACTERS
Bobo – A friend of Walter Lee who, like Walter, also falls prey to
Willy Harris’ liquor store investment scheme. A “very slight
little man,” the bumbling and “pitiful” Bobo is the one who tells
Walter and Ruth that Willy Harris has conned them out of their
investments.
Mr
Mr.. and Mrs. Arnold – The wealthy white couple that employs
Walter Lee as a chauffeur. Mr. and Mrs. Arnold never appear
onstage.
Mo
Moving
ving Men – Two hired men who appear onstage in the play’s
final moments to help the Youngers move their belongings to
Clybourne Park.
THEMES
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occur most prominently throughout the work. If you don't have
a color printer, you can still use the icons to track themes in
black and white.
DREAMS
Dreams possess great importance in A Raisin in the
Sun, with the play’s name coming from a 1951
Langston Hughes poem titled Montage of a Dream
Deferred. In the poem, part of which serves as the play’s
epigraph (a quotation at the beginning of a book that
elaborates on its major themes) the poet asks, “What happens
to a dream deferred?” pondering whether it shrivels up “like a
raisin in the sun” or explodes. Hughes’ open question forms the
basis of Hansberry’s work, with the intertwined and conflicting
ambitions of the Youngers driving the play’s plot. Each
character clings to distinct dreams, which have long been
deferred due to socioeconomic limitations placed on the family
by racism. The persistence of these dreams lends the play a
pervasive sense of hope, despite the conclusion’s
foreshadowing of coming struggles for the family in Clybourne
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Park.
Mama and her late husband Big Walter’s dream of owning a
home forms the crux of the play. Clinging to a dream deferred
for nearly 35 years, Mama recalls Big Walter’s statement that it
seems “like God didn’t see fit to give the black man nothing but
dreams,” linking the postponement of her dream to racial
inequality. Ironically, it is Big Walter’s death, with its resulting
$10,000 insurance payment, that makes the realization of
Mama’s dream possible by the end of the play. Like Mama, Ruth
clings to the dream of a home, which generates conflict with
her husband, Walter Lee, who dreams of becoming a selfsufficient business owner. Similarly, Walter’s dream of owning a
liquor store (one of the few business ventures open to an
African-American man in mid-century Chicago) stands in stark
contrast to his sister Beneatha’s dream of becoming a doctor.
However, by the play’s end Walter’s lost investment places
both his and Beneatha’s dreams in jeopardy, casting a shadow
over the play’s semi-hopeful conclusion, which centers on
Mama’s actualized dream. With the insurance money gone,
Walter’s and Beneatha’s dreams for the future appear in
danger of further postponement, recalling broader struggles
with social forces beyond the characters’ control.
DIGNITY AND PRIDE
A central virtue in the Younger household, dignity
exerts a unifying force throughout the play. Mama
expresses pride in her family’s background and
tries to instill in her children a sense of respect for their
ancestors, who were Southern slaves and sharecroppers.
Although some characters, such as Mrs. Johnson, criticize the
family as “one proud-acting bunch of colored folks,” the family
holds fast to its ancestral dignity, an inheritance it considers to
be greater than gold. At the play’s climax, the Youngers’ sense
of pride gives them the strength to reject Karl Lindner’s
dehumanizing offer to buy back their new home because, as
Mama says, “Ain’t nobody in my family never let nobody pay ‘em
no money that was a way of telling us we wasn’t fit to walk the
earth.” Despite the family’s dire financial situation following
Walter Lee’s misguided investment, the Youngers resolutely
refuse to forfeit their dignity in pursuit of economic gain.
Walter’s loss and eventual recovery of his pride constitute a
major plotline of the play. His personal crisis of pride, brought
on by his inability to support his family in his dead-end job as a
chauffeur, culminates with his decision regarding Karl Lindner’s
offer to purchase the Youngers’ new house. Upon first meeting
Lindner, Walter, Ruth, and Beneatha resoundingly reject his
offer, demonstrating their collective familial pride. However,
after squandering the family’s insurance payment, Walter
decides to accept Lindner’s offer, showing his horrified family
how he will act out the stereotype of a groveling black man
while signing the contract with Lindner. It is only after Mama
insists that Travis witness his father’s demeaning transaction
©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007
with Lindner that Walter rediscovers his self-worth while
standing behind “the sixth generation [of] our family in this
country.” In a quietly triumphant moment, Walter reclaims his
personal pride, asserts his family’s historical right to be treated
fairly in their country, and refortifies his family’s dignity.
RACE, DISCRIMINATION, AND
ASSIMILATION
In 1959 much of the United States, including
Chicago, remained de facto segregated, meaning
that racial segregation persisted in education, employment, and
housing even though the Supreme Court had overturned
segregation that was established by law as unconstitutional.
Set in de facto segregated Chicago, Hansberry’s play draws on
stories from the author’s own life, such as her family’s
experience with housing discrimination in 1930s Chicago. After
moving to a house in an all-white neighborhood, Hansberry’s
family endured legal battles and physical threats not unlike the
“bombs” that Walter, Ruth, and Mrs. Johnson reference in the
play. Despite the suggestion by Karl Lindner that “race
prejudice simply doesn't enter into” Clybourne Park’s offer to
buy back the Youngers’ home, he hints at the very real dangers
that accompany the family’s decision to relocate to a white
neighborhood.
Certain characters in the play, such as George Murchison,
address persistent racial discrimination by directing their
efforts toward assimilation, whereby one integrates into the
mainstream of society. Beneatha, declaring that she “hate[s]
assimilationist Negroes,” condemns George as “ashamed of his
heritage” when he initially scoffs at her close-cut, “natural”
hair. George retorts that the “heritage” in which Beneatha
takes such pride is “nothing but a bunch of raggedy-assed
spirituals and some grass huts!” With this argument, Hansberry
gives voice to the varied opinions of African-American thinkers,
such as Booker T. Washington (who argued in favor of gradual
assimilation of African Americans) and Marcus Garvey (who
championed pride in African heritage and called for African
Americans to return to Africa).
In the same vein as Garvey, Hansberry explores the idea of
Africa as a home for African Americans, a view most clearly
articulated by Joseph Asagai, a Nigerian student. Following the
loss of Walter’s investment Asagai suggests that a
disheartened Beneatha “come home with me . . . to Africa.”
Asagai’s suggestion that Beneatha move to Nigeria with him to
explore her African roots reflected the surge in African studies
that gained momentum in the late 1950s. While Beneatha
shows genuine interest in her African heritage, she does not
answer Asagai’s proposal within the context of the play, hinting
that she may not go so far as to think of Africa as her “home.”
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GENDER AND FEMINISM
A Raisin in the Sun anticipates the massive changes
in gender relations – principally, the rise of
feminism and the Sexual Revolution – that would
transform American life in the 1960s. Hansberry explores
controversial issues like abortion (which was illegal in 1959),
the value of marriage, and morphing gender roles for women
and men. Each of the Youngers takes a different attitude
towards shifting gender roles, and the characters’ perspectives
shed light on their identities. Beneatha, who Hansberry said
was partly based on herself, holds the most modern views,
pursuing her dream to become a doctor (a male-dominated
profession at the time) and telling a shocked Mama and Ruth
that she isn’t concerned about marriage—and that she might
not ever get married at all. Beneatha’s brother, Walter Lee,
repeatedly criticizes his sister’s ambition to become a doctor,
suggesting that she “just get married.” Beneatha’s conviction to
her modernized worldview highlights her unique brand of
strength, perhaps also serving as an indirect expression of
Hansberry’s own opinions.
Mama and Ruth share more traditional views on marriage and
their role as women. Both characters work in traditionally
female roles as domestic servants, one of the few jobs open to
African-American women at the time. Similarly, Walter Lee
holds conventional views on gender, and his ability to
adequately fulfill his role as a man greatly affects his selfesteem. Walter links his own identity and self-worth to his
sense of “manhood,” which ebbs and flows during the play.
Walter resents his emasculating work as a white man’s
chauffeur and Mama’s standing as “head” of the family, which
confines him to the position of a “child” in his home. Mama’s
eventual decision to make Walter head of the family “like you
supposed to be,” along with Walter’s courageous refusal of Karl
Lindner’s offer, prompt Mama and Ruth to note that Walter
“finally come into his manhood today.” Thus, Walter’s status as a
man parallels both his success as the “man” of the house and his
ability to establish himself as an equal in his interactions with
Lindner and others.
MONEY
Money provides a constant source of conflict and
preoccupation in the Younger household. Within
moments of the play’s opening, Walter Lee asks
Ruth, “Check coming today?” in reference to the insurance
payment that his mother, Lena, is due to receive as a result of
her husband’s death. The members of the Younger family view
money in different ways, with Mama, Beneatha, and Ruth
imagining money as a means to an end and Walter thinking of it
as an end in itself. Mama sees the insurance payment as a way
to fulfill her dream of owning a house, which symbolizes her
deep-seated yearning for “freedom” from racial persecution.
Similarly, Beneatha dreams of the money as a way to fund her
©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007
medical schooling, which embodies her desire to overcome
racism and sexism.
On the other hand, Walter fantasizes about the way in which
money would increase his social standing and allow him to
acquire the material markers of class. Without room for
advancement in his low-paying job as a chauffeur, Walter is
continually frustrated by his inability to fulfill the masculine role
of financial provider for his family, a failing that sends his selfesteem into a nosedive. Yet despite his temptation to accept
Karl Lindner’s sizeable bribe at the end of the play, Walter has
an abrupt change of heart and ultimately rejects the offer,
stating, “We have decided to move into our home because my
father—my father—he earned it for us brick by brick.”
Reclaiming his pride, Walter finds the strength to refuse
Lindner’s enticing but degrading offer, instead choosing to
move to the house purchased with money “made out of my
father’s flesh.”
SYMBOLS
Symbols appear in teal text throughout the Summary and
Analysis sections of this LitChart.
MAMA’S PLANT
Mama’s feeble plant represents her family’s
deferred dreams for a better future, which have
struggled to survive under the strain of life in Chicago’s South
Side. Mama’s unending devotion to her small houseplant
signifies her constant care for her family and her attention to
its dreams. “Growing doggedly” in a small pot by the
apartment’s kitchen window, Mama’s plant has “spirit,” despite
the fact that “this little old plant . . . ain’t never had enough
sunshine or nothing.” Like the plant, the Youngers have
struggled to overcome the circumstances, such as racial
prejudice, that curb their growth and social mobility. Mama
dreams of owning a house with a small garden, and until the
play’s conclusion her plant is as “close as I ever got” to achieving
that dream. In the final moments of the play, Mama picks up her
plant and leaves the South Side apartment for the last time,
showing that this symbol of perseverance will accompany the
family as it faces new challenges in Clybourne Park.
BENEATHA’S HAIR
Beneatha’s natural hair symbolizes her pride in
her African heritage and her desire to explore her
African roots. After Joseph Asagai refers to Beneatha’s
Caucasian-style straightened hair as “mutilated,” Beneatha
reevaluates the significance of her “assimilationist” hairstyle
and decides to cut her hair and wear it in its natural form. While
Ruth, Walter, and George Murchison are flabbergasted by
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Beneatha’s abrupt decision to wear her hair “all nappy like that,”
Beneatha sees her new hairstyle as a way to distance herself
from “the dominant, and in this case oppressive” mainstream
culture and to fully embrace her African heritage. With her
natural hair, Beneatha proudly marks herself as an antiassimilationist and visibly expresses her racial identity. Her
decision foreshadows the “Natural Hair” movement that many
young African Americans embraced in the 1960s, which
championed the beauty of African-American hair.
THE INSURANCE PAYMENT
The insurance payment that results from Big
Walter’s death illustrates the tremendous sacrifice
that makes at least some of the Youngers’ dreams a reality. As
Mama tells Ruth, Big Walter “finally worked hisself to death” in
an effort to support his family financially, procuring a $10,000
life insurance policy that would provide for his family after his
death. In the hope of helping his children achieve their dreams,
Big Walter sacrificed himself to give his family the opportunity
for a better life. Knowing that racial prejudice prevented him
from obtaining a house and a fulfilling job during his own
lifetime, Big Walter’s sacrifice symbolizes the efforts that
generations of African Americans made to give their children’s
dreams a chance for success. The extreme nature of Big
Walter’s sacrifice shows the extent to which racism limited
African Americans’ opportunities for social advancement, but
the insurance payment also gives purpose to Big Walter’s death
and epitomizes the hope and dignity of the Younger family.
Conversely, the frequent arguments between the Youngers
that result from the insurance payment signify the divisive
power of money.
QUO
QUOTES
TES
Note: all page numbers for the quotes below refer to the
Vintage edition of A Raisin in the Sun published in 2004.
Act 1, Scene 1 Quotes
Walter: See there, that just goes to show you what women
understand about the world. Baby, don’t nothing happen for you
in this world ‘less you pay somebody off!
Ruth: Walter, leave me alone! Eat your eggs, they gonna be
cold.
Walter: That’s it. There you are. Man say to his woman: I got me
a dream. His woman say: Eat your eggs. Man say: I got to take
hold of this here world, baby! And a woman will say: Eat your
eggs and go to work. Man say: I got to change my life, I’m
choking to death, baby! And his woman say – Your eggs is
getting cold!
©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007
Related Characters: Walter Lee Younger, Ruth Younger
(speaker)
Related Themes:
Page Number: 33-34
Explanation and Analysis
This quote occurs midway through a discussion between
Walter Younger and his wife Ruth. Their son Travis has gone
to school and Ruth cooks breakfast for Walter. As she cooks,
Walter tells Ruth that he hopes to use his deceased father’s
$10,000 life insurance money to invest in a down payment
on a liquor store with his friends, Willy Harris and Bobo.
Ruth is wary of the investment. She doesn’t trust Willy and
Bobo and continuously evades discussing the prospect of
Walter using his father’s money on an investment. She
finally tells him to leave her alone and he reacts with
frustration at both his wife and his own position in life; a
black man in the 1950’s trying to provide for his family.
This is the first time Hansberry touches on the idea of
dreams and dreaming in A Raisin In The Sun,as well as
differentiates between the dreams of men and the dreams
of women. This scene highlights Walter’s aspirations for
wealth and thereby an escape from his family’s poor
Southside Chicago life. He is filled with hope and a deep
longing for financial stability. This moment also underlines
Walter’s continual feeling of being out of control and at the
mercy of others. He is a chauffeur for a wealthy white
family, and his mother is the sole inheritor of the $10,000,
and so she will ultimately have the final say. In the timeperiod of the play, men were expected to lead and provide
for their families, so Walter, who is the only man in the
family but neither the final decision-maker nor the primary
breadwinner, feels emasculated. He needs dreams in order
to survive and retain his dignity. Ruth on the other hand is
pragmatic, as women had to be at the time. Her aspirations
are less expansive. For her, survival means cooking
breakfast, making sure her son gets to school and she and
her husband get to work. Thus, she responds to Walter’s big
dreams with the utilitarian and simple task of "eat your
eggs." As a woman (particularly a black woman) in this time
period, she doesn’t have room to dream the way Walter
dreams.
That is just what is wrong with the colored women in this
world . . . Don’t understand about building their men up
and making ‘em feel like they somebody. Like they can do
something.
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Related Characters: Walter Lee Younger (speaker)
Related Themes:
Related Characters: Walter Lee Younger, Beneatha
Younger (speaker)
Related Themes:
Page Number: 34
Page Number: 38
Explanation and Analysis
Just before this quote, Walter expressed frustration at Ruth
telling him to “eat your eggs” instead of discussing his
potential investment on a liquor store. After he explains why
he wants to invest, Ruth tells him that the money he plans to
use doesn’t belong to him (it belongs to his mother). Walter
responds with a moment of deep sensitivity. He explains
that he wants a better life. He wants to be able to provide
for his family. He goes on to tell Ruth that he has heard
stories of the way “white people live” and wants a life like
that. Ruth is tired of hearing these lofty dreams and tells
Walter that he never really says anything new. He talks
about his dreams and his place and she is seemingly bored
and sick of it.
This quote is Walter's response. He tells Ruth that her
refusal to take him or his dreams seriously is the problem
with “colored women in this world.” This highlights both the
themes of race and gender in A Raisin In The Sun. In 1950s
America, a woman’s role was to uplift and support her
husband. Ruth, in her stern and outspoken manner, is the
antithesis of such behavior. Walter also draws a racial
comparison suggesting that white women dobehave in such
a way, with the implication that it is this behavior of white
women that helps white men to hold such positions of
power.
Walter is frustrated by the position of black people in
society and is also making fun of his wife for not fitting into
the standard gender role of "mother" and "housewife." In his
own way, Walter is trying to hash out why and how upward
mobility seems so hard for black men. Yet in searching for
something tangible to blame—and landing on black women
as the cause—he fails to see the true cause: systemic racism
that restricts the opportunities of black people and in doing
so degrades their sense of dignity.
Walter: Who the hell told you you had to be a doctor? If
you so crazy ‘bout messing ‘round with sick people – then
go be a nurse like other women – or just get married and be
quiet . . .
Beneatha: Well – you finally got it said . . . It took you three
years but you finally got it said.
Explanation and Analysis
In this quote, Walter chastises his 20-year-old sister
Beneatha for wanting to be a doctor. Before this, Beneatha
wakes up in the room she shares her mother and comes out
to talk with her family. Already in a fit of frustration
regarding the insurance money, Walter suggests that his
mother will play favorites and give a portion of the $10,000
to Beneatha to finish her schooling. He is both frustrated
that his mother holds control of the money and bitter that a
portion of it will go to his sister.
This moment excavates themes of gender and feminism and
dreams and dreaming. A Raisin In The Sun is set in the
mid-1950s, a time where women weren’t seen as leaders in
the workplace. Instead of doctors, they were more
commonly nurses. Instead of business owners, they were
secretaries. Many were housewives and mothers. Beneatha
challenges the socially constructed expectations of both her
gender and her race. As a black woman pursuing a career in
medicine, she fights stereotypes and aspires to go beyond
what is culturally expected and even acceptable.
Beneatha and Walter are more similar than they both think.
Both of their aspirations extend beyond what society
expects of them. However, Walter sees Beneatha’s role as
exclusively mother and wife. Beneatha, on the other hand,
doesn’t take Walter’s dream of opening a liquor store
seriously. This moment is just the beginning of what will be
an ongoing discourse between Walter and Beneatha
regarding the validity of one another's dreams.
Mama, something is happening between Walter and me. I
don’t know what it is – but he needs something –
something I can’t give him anymore. He needs this chance,
Lena.
Related Characters: Ruth Younger (speaker), Lena Younger
(Mama), Walter Lee Younger
Related Themes:
Related Symbols:
Page Number: 42
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Explanation and Analysis
This quote occurs during a conversation between Mama
and Ruth. After breakfast, Walter exits the apartment and
we are introduced to “Mama” or Lena Younger—Walter and
Beneatha’s mother. She enters complaining about how
loudly Walter slammed the door, and then goes through a
series of questions and commands. She checks in about how
Walter is doing and makes jokes about her children. It
becomes clear that the role of mother is etched in her soul.
This seems appropriate as she remains mostly nameless
throughout the play, primarily referred to as “Mama.” In a
moment alone, Ruth tells Mama that Beneatha and Walter
have been fighting about the insurance money. Ruth then
asks Mama how she actually plans on using that money.
Mama dismisses this, but Ruth suggests that maybe
gambling on the liquor store isn’t necessarily a bad idea.
Mama asks why she’s changed her mind.
In response, Ruth suggests that she can’t give Walter what
he needs; a chance to fulfill his own dreams. Ruth is
exhausted and tired of working for hardly any pay, and in
this moment shares that she wants more for herself, in the
same way Walter and Beneatha do. Except as as more
traditional wife and mother, Ruth's dreams are her
husband’s dreams. She hopes to fix the problems in her
marriage by helping Walter fulfill his dreams, and for this he
needs the insurance money.
Mama: What is it you want to express?
Beneatha: Me! Don’t worry – I don’t expect you to
understand.
Related Characters: Lena Younger (Mama), Beneatha
Younger (speaker)
Related Themes:
Here we learn that Beneatha takes great pride in her selfexpression and is in search of her own identity. Throughout
the play she defines herself by her education, her dress, her
activities and her connection to her African heritage. In this
moment, Hansberry also highlights the generational
differences between Mama and Beneatha. Mama doesn’t
understand Beneatha’s need to express. Like Ruth, she is
pragmatic and reserved. The only thing she expresses is her
love for her family and staunch sense of survival. She fits the
traditional 1950s mold of mother, and takes pride in that.
Indeed, after this moment Mama immediately re-routes the
conversation to George Murchison, Beneatha’s suitor,
pushing her to make a commitment to him, like a good
woman should.
Act 1, Scene 2 Quotes
Asagai: You wear it well . . . very well . . . mutilated hair and
all.
Beneatha: My hair – what’s wrong with my hair?
Asagai: Were you born with it like that?
Beneatha: No . . . of course not.
Related Characters: Joseph Asagai, Beneatha Younger
(speaker)
Related Themes:
Related Symbols:
Page Number: 61
Explanation and Analysis
Page Number: 48
Explanation and Analysis
This moment happens during a conversation between
Beneatha, Ruth, and Mama. When Mama asks Beneatha
about what time she's going to be home from school that
evening, Beneatha tells Ruth and Mama that she is coming
home late because she plans on taking her first guitar lesson
after school. Mama goes on to tease Beneatha, telling her
that she’s flippant with her forms of "expression." First it was
acting, followed by horse back riding, and now it's guitar.
Mama hardly trusts that Beneatha will commit to this new
hobby.
©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007
Beneatha defends herself by telling Mama that she doesn’t
“flit” but rather experiments with different forms of
expression. Mama then asks her what she’s trying to
express. And Beneatha responds angrily with, “Me!”
Directly before this quote we are introduced to Joseph
Asagai, a friend of Beneatha’s. Asagai, a Nigerian student,
has returned from a trip to Canada and visits the Younger
home to see Beneatha. When he arrives he gifts Beneatha
traditional Nigerian robes. Asagai then comments on
Beneatha’s hair. She asks him what’s wrong with it, and he
tells her it isn’t “natural.” Beneatha replies that it’s easier to
manage longer, permed hair. Asagai teases her, saying that
he’s shocked that she would “mutilate” her natural hair for
the sake of ease.
Here, Hansberry touches on the themes of assimilation,
discrimination, gender, and feminism. Beneatha’s constant
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change of interests and hobbies represents more than a
search for expression; she is also in search of her own
identity. Beneatha represents the identity struggle many
black people faced and continue to face in America. It is
racist society that has dictated that Beneatha’s natural hair
is unruly and messy. In Asagai’s view, by perming her hair
Beneatha is assimilating to American cultural standards of
beauty, which are grounded in whiteness and what white
people consider attractive or appealing. Beneatha’s straight
hair, although also possibly more manageable, mostly
symbolizes her desire to fit in with white culture.
This also brings up questions of gender and feminism in A
Raisin In The Sun. Like Ruth’s quote about Walter eating his
eggs earlier in Act I, Beneatha’s response to Asagai’s
comments about her hair are pragmatic. Straightening her
hair is easier than letting it be natural. It’s a utilitarian
choice. Furthermore, it’s important to note that only
women’s hair is discussed in the play. Even though Asagai's
comments are aimed at empowering Beneatha to be a
strong black woman, the discussion of hair and her physical
attributes of beauty indicate the gender roles and
standards of the time. In her interaction with Asagai, there
is more discussion about Beneatha’s hair than there is about
her becoming a doctor.
Mama: Oh – So now it’s life. Money is life. Once upon a
time freedom used to be life – now it’s money. I guess the
world really do change . . .
Walter: No – it was always money, Mama. We just didn’t know
about it.
Mama: No . . . something has changed. You something new, boy.
In my time we was worried about not being lynched and getting
to the North if we could and how to stay alive and still have a
pinch of dignity too . . .
Related Characters: Lena Younger (Mama), Walter Lee
Younger (speaker)
Related Themes:
Here Mama details the differences between her generation
and her children’s. She was a child at the turn of the century,
a time when “freedom” meant something entirely different
for black Americans. Mama's parents escaped slavery to
provide her with a better life. Freedom for her meant not
being lynched or killed for being black. Freedom has been
redefined for her children, however. Rather than being
freed from the physical chains of slavery, Walter is in pursuit
of freedom from economic oppression. In Mama’s
perspective, Walter doesn’t realize how lucky he is. He
doesn't take pride in the four generations of slaves and
indentured servants that fought for freedom so that he
could have a better life. She is frustrated at his lack of
dignity, ingratitude, and sense of privilege. By fighting for a
better life, Mama gave Walter the freedom to dream bigger
than she was ever able to, and now she can’t quite
understand why his dreams are based so much on financial
wealth.
Well – son, I’m waiting to hear you say something . . . I’m
waiting to hear how you be your father’s son. Be the man
he was . . . Your wife say she going to destroy your child. And I’m
waiting to hear you talk like him and say we a people who give
children life, not who destroys them – I’m waiting to see you
stand up and look like your daddy and say we done give one
baby up to poverty and that we ain’t going to give up nary
another one . . .
Related Characters: Lena Younger (Mama) (speaker)
Related Themes:
Page Number: 75
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis
Explanation and Analysis
This quote occurs during a discussion between Mama and
Walter. Before this quote, Mama tells Walter that she’s
concerned that he may be cheating on Ruth; he’s constantly
out of the house and is very secretive with his family. Walter
tells Mama that he isn’t cheating on his wife but rather
searching for “peace.” He is restless. Walter explains that he
©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007
sees a bright future in front of him, and investing in a liquor
store is the only way he knows how to reach it. Walter goes
on to tell Mama that sometimes, when he walks down the
Chicago streets, he sees white men through the windows of
restaurants having business meetings. He wants that. Mama
replies by asking him why he talks about money so much.
Walter retorts, “Because it is life.”
Before this moment, Mama expresses that she's concerned
that Walter is cheating on Ruth. Walter denies this, but
reveals that he is in a troubling place in his life. He hasn't
been cheating, but rather has been searching for answers.
He is frustrated by his position in the world and feels like his
dreams of financial wealth and a better life for his family will
never be realized. Mama chastises Walter for seeing money
as the ultimate form of freedom. Walter dismisses this,
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telling Mama she doesn't understand what he's going
through. At her wit's end, Mama finally reveals that Ruth is
pregnant. She tells Walter that Ruth has been trying to tell
him. but he hasn't been around or interested enough to
listen. Mama then tells Walter that Ruth is considering
aborting the baby. Walter argues that Ruth would never do
that. Having overheard the conversation from her bedroom,
Ruth immediately enters the room and tells Walter that she
has put down a five dollar down payment for the procedure.
In a moment of silence between Walter and Ruth, Mama
tells Walter that this is the moment for him to "be a man."
She implores him to live up to his father's legacy and
convince Ruth to not go through with the abortion.
Mama takes great pride in her faith and moral ethics, and
Ruth's abortion tests those. This is also another moment
where Walter's masculinity is questioned. Mama asks
Walter to take pride in his beliefs and his manhood and step
up and be a leader and a father. This moment also highlights
the way poverty impacts decisions like childbearing, and
takes a toll on pride and honor. Ruth's abortion is a result of
her poverty, not a choice she would make if the Younger
family were financially stable. This moment symbolizes how
poverty strips people of their own dignity and sense of self.
Oh, dear, dear, dear! Here we go! A lecture on the African
past! On our Great West African Heritage! In one second
we will hear all about the great Ashanti empires; the great
Songhay civilizations; and the great sculpture of Bénin – and
then some poetry in the Bantu – and the whole monologue will
end with the word heritage! Let’s face it, baby, your heritage is
nothing but a bunch of raggedy-assed spirituals and some grass
huts!
Related Characters: George Murchison (speaker)
Related Themes:
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis
Beneatha enters the living room, clad in the Nigerian robes
that Asagai has given her. She changes the record Ruth is
playing, saying “Enough of this assimilation junk,” puts on a
Nigerian record, and dances. Ruth teases Beneatha for her
behavior, but Beneatha keeps dancing. Walter then enters
the apartment after a night of drinking. He drunkenly
dances along with Beneatha, and then turns to see George
Murchison, Beneatha’s suitor, at the door. Shocked by her
appearance, George looks at Beneatha’s robes and asks her
to change. She then takes off the headdress to reveal
©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007
natural, curly hair cut short. George and Ruth are stunned
that Beneatha proudly wears her hair in its natural form. In
a moment of awe, George says, "What have you done to
your head?" Beneatha answers matter-of-factly that she's
cut her hair off. George then tells Beneatha that she isn’t
making a statement—she’s just being eccentric. Making a jab
at George, Beneatha replies that she “hates assimilationist
negroes,” describing them (and thereby George) as people
who give up their own culture to survive in an oppressive
one. George replies with this quote, which infuriates
Beneatha.
Here, George expresses his exhaustion with Beneatha's
newfound "Back to Africa" sentiments, and even pokes fun
at the heritage they share. In this moment, Hansberry
distills an important cultural conversation that was
happening during the time A Raisin In The Sun was written.
In the 1950s and 60s, many Civil Rights leaders like
Malcolm X reinforced the idea that black people should
reclaim their African heritage. Many believed that
assimilating to American culture meant assimilating to
White culture, and thus submitting to the oppressor.
However, others believed that in order to close the racial
gap in America, people had to come together. Some simply
felt that making a statement like Beneatha's was petty and
unnecessary. George represents this group of people. He is
in many ways self-hating and discriminatory against his own
heritage. George prides himself on his education and
upward mobility, and sees Beneatha's act of expression as
childish and silly.
George: You’re all wacked up with bitterness, man.
Walter: And you – ain’t you bitter, man? Ain’t you just
about had it yet? Don’t you see no stars gleaming that you can’t
reach out and grab? You happy? – You contented son-of-a-bitch
– you happy? You got it made? Bitter? Man, I’m a volcano.
Bitter? Here I am a giant – surrounded by ants! Ants who can’t
even understand what it is the giant is talking about.
Related Characters: George Murchison, Walter Lee
Younger (speaker)
Related Themes:
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis
Just before this, Walter mocks George's appearance and
then comments on the success of George's father. He hints
that he has a business venture he wants to get into, and
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would like to sit down with George to talk about it. George
clearly dismisses Walter. This infuriates Walter, who retorts
with a series of insults. Walter tells George that his
education is pointless and all he is learning is to "talk proper
and read books and wear them faggoty looking white
shoes." George tells Walter that he's just bitter about his
own lack of success. Walter, angrily expresses that he
doesn't understand why people won't allow themselves to
dream as big as he does. In his mind, George should also be
bitter.Walter has dreams he can't touch and George
chooses to ignore them. In Walter's perspective, George is
an ant with small goals and small aspirations.
In this scene, Hansberry brings up themes of dreams, pride,
and gender roles. George's blatant ignoring of Ruth (as he
does earlier in the conversation) and engagement with
Walter highlights different forms of disrespect. George
doesn't bother paying attention to or listening to Ruth
because she is a woman. On the other hand, he is also rude
and sarcastic with Walter. This moment also highlights
different types of pride. George's pride lies in his social
standing, education, and assimilation into white society.
Walter's pride is in his dreams. Both also hold pride in their
manhood. Walter comments on George's clothes, hinting
that they are flamboyant and feminine, while also
referencing himself as a "volcano" as a means to reinforce
his masculinity.
Well – well! – All I can say is – if this is my time in life – MY
TIME – to say good-bye – to these goddamned cracking
walls! – and these marching roaches! – and this cramped little
closet which ain’t now or never was no kitchen! . . . then I say it
loud and good, HALLELUJAH! AND GOOD-BYE MISERY . . . I
DON’T NEVER WANT TO SEE YOUR UGLY FACE AGAIN!
family that she has used the insurance money to make a
down payment on a house. Walter "turns away from all of
them in fury" while Ruth, Travis, and Mama celebrate.
Mama then wails "Praise GOD" and asks Walter, who has
been silent, to please be happy for her. Mama then
describes the house in detail. Ruth asks Mama where the
house is located, and Mama tells her it's in Clybourne park.
Ruth is shocked, as Clybourne park is an all-white
neighborhood. Mama replies that it was the nicest and
cheapest house she could find. Ruth recovers and says the
following quote with excitement and joy. She expresses her
joy to be leaving their tiny apartment and screams goodbye
to the pain and tumult the Younger family faced while living
there.
In this moment we see one of Ruth's dreams come to
fruition. She is thrilled to say goodbye to her two-bedroom
Southside Chicago home and move forward, to a better
home and a better life for Travis and her unborn child. Here,
Hansberry suggests that the decision to have an abortion
was a product of Ruth's poverty, not her will. This is another
moment of female pragmatism and self sacrifice for the
family.Furthermore, in an act of empowerment, Mama has
made the decision to spend the insurance money on a new
home. She has solidified herself as head of household,
something uncommon during the 1950s.
Son – you – you understand what I done, don’t you? I – I
just seen my family falling apart today . . . just falling to
pieces in front of my eyes . . . We couldn’t of gone on like we was
today. We was going backwards ‘stead of forwards – talking
‘bout killing babies and wishing each other was dead . . . When it
gets like that in life – you just got to do something different,
push on out and do something bigger.
Related Characters: Ruth Younger (speaker)
Related Characters: Lena Younger (Mama) (speaker),
Walter Lee Younger
Related Themes:
Related Themes:
Related Symbols:
Page Number: 94
Explanation and Analysis
Page Number: 94
Explanation and Analysis
This quote occurs when Mama re-enters the house after
being gone for several hours. Walter asks her where she's
been, and she replies that she went downtown for
"business," She calls Travis to the room and reveals to the
©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007
This quote occurs directly after Mama reveals that she has
used the insurance money for a down payment on a new
house for the family in Clybourne Park. Walter has said very
little at this point and is furious that Mama chose to use the
money in this way. In this moment Mama is trying to level
with Walter. She explains that this day was a low point for
the Younger family. She saw her daughter-in-law consider
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aborting her unborn child, she saw her children fighting
about money, she saw her daughter struggle with her
identity, and thought that her son wasn't going to make it
through. She saw the effects that poverty and oppression
can have on people. The choice to buy a home was Mama's
effort to save her family.
Mama's strength and Walter's silence highlight the way
many of the characters challenge and face gender roles in A
Raisin In The Sun.Mama has taken control of the insurance
money and has made an executive decision. This infuriates
Walter. Much of his pride is bound up in his manhood and
sense of masculinity. Throughout the play he has expressed
his resentment of his inability to control his own life and
provide for his family. By calling the shots, Mama has
emasculated him once again. In Walter's perspective, she
has stripped Walter of his choice and leadership—but for
Mama, her decision to buy the house was also a choice to
restore her family's dignity. The events of the day were the
last straw for her and she tried to fix the problem the only
way she knew how.
I say I been wrong, son. That I been doing to you what the
rest of the world been doing to you. Walter – what you
ain’t never understood is that I ain’t got nothing, don’t own
nothing, ain’t never really wanted nothing that wasn’t for you. . .
. There ain’t nothing worth holding on to, money, dreams,
nothing else – if it means – if it means it’s going to destroy my
boy. . . . I’m telling you to be the head of this family from now on
like you supposed to be.
Related Characters: Lena Younger (Mama) (speaker),
Walter Lee Younger
lost.
This moment reveals Walter's complete loss of pride and
deep need for escape. Mama blames herself and tells
Walter that she was the one who did this to him. Here,
Hansberry touches on the gender roles put in place during
the time period in which A Raisin In The Sun was written. By
taking control of the insurance money, Mama has
emasculated Walter. He is the man, and so by cultural
standards is supposed to be the "head of household," and
the one to decide how to allocate finances. Mama laments
that she has been doing "what the rest of the world been
doing,"—depriving Walter of his manhood and keeping him
from his dreams and his pride. After she says this she hands
Walter the $6,500 left over from the down payment on the
house. Mama asks him to put some away for Beneatha's
schooling and use the rest however he wants, even for his
investment on the liquor store. Mama has relinquished her
role and, in order to save Walter, offers him control over the
money.
Act 2, Scene 3 Quotes
But you’ve got to admit that a man, right or wrong, has the
right to want to have a neighborhood he lives in a certain kind
of way. And at the moment the overwhelming majority of our
people out there feel that people get along better, take more of
a common interest in the life of the community, when they
share a common background. I want you to believe me when I
tell you that race prejudice simply doesn’t enter into it. It is a
matter of the people of Clybourne Park believing, rightly or
wrongly, as I say, that for the happiness of all concerned that
our Negro families are happier when they live in their own
communities.
Related Themes:
Related Characters: Karl Lindner (speaker)
Page Number: 106
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis
In this moment, Mama tells Walter that she finally
understands where his anger and frustration is coming
from. Before this quote, Mama used her deceased
husband's life insurance money for a down payment on a
new house in Clybourne Park. Mrs. Arnold, Walter's boss,
then calls to tell Walter that if he doesn't show up for work
tomorrow he will be fired. Ruth and Mama learn that Walter
hasn't been to work in three days. Mama asks Walter what
he's been doing, and Walter tells her that he's been
borrowing Willy Harris' car, driving through Illinois, and
drinking at The Green Hat—a Jazz club—every afternoon.
He has given up on his job and, in many ways, himself. He is
©2020 LitCharts LLC v.007
Page Number: 117-118
Explanation and Analysis
This quote is spoken by Mr. Lindner, a representative from
the Clybourne Park Improvement Association. Before this
moment, the Youngers have been riding the coattails of the
excitement that came from Mama's purchase of the new
house. As they celebrate, Mr. Lindner knocks on the door.
He comes into the Younger home to tell them that the
homeowners of Clybourne Park are uncomfortable with a
"different" family moving in—so much so that they are
offering to purchase the house from the Younger family at a
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higher price than what they've paid. This is an effort to
maintain Clybourne Park as a community of people with
"common interests," or simply put: to make sure that black
people do not move in.
Although not outwardly derogatory, Mr. Lindner's efforts to
maintain racial segregation in Clybourne Park are
inherently racist. The white families of Clybourne Park do
not see black people as equals and thereby do not believe
that they deserve to live in their neighborhoods. Mr.
Lindner tries to be as politically correct as possible, but the
message is clear: the status quo in Clybourne Park is that of
white supremacy, and the members of the community want
to maintain that status quo. Although sugar coated in
flowery language and nervousness, Mr.Lindner symbolizes
the abundant discrimination and racism of American society
in the 1950s—racism that exhibited itself in many ways, not
just in outright violence or insulting language.
Man, I trusted you . . . Man, I put my life in your hands . . .
Man . . . THAT MONEY IS MADE OUT OF MY FATHER’S
FLESH –
Here Walter's dreams are shattered. Throughout the play
his pride and manhood have been questioned and tirelessly
compared to his father's. Here he realizes that the money
was the last bit of his father's legacy, and it was also the last
bit of Walter's pride. The money and the investment meant
freedom for himself and his family, as well as his only
opportunity to exercise choice and power. Now Walter is
left with nothing, as his own ambition has gotten in the way
of his father's dream for his family to have a better life.
Act 3 Quotes
Independence and then what? What about all the crooks
and thieves and just plain idiots who will come into power and
steal and plunder the same as before – only now they will be
black and do it in the name of the new Independence – WHAT
ABOUT THEM?!
Related Characters: Beneatha Younger (speaker)
Related Themes:
Related Symbols:
Related Characters: Walter Lee Younger (speaker), Walter
Younger (Big Walter), Willy Harris
Explanation and Analysis
Related Themes:
Related Symbols:
Page Number: 128
Explanation and Analysis
During this quote, Bobo, Walter's business partner, comes
to the Younger home to relay some news. Directly before
this moment, Walter has been celebrating his investment on
the liquor store with his family, regaling them with fantasies
of fine clothes and celebrating the future. Bobo then enters
and nervously tells Walter that he was supposed to meet
Willy Harris to get the liquor license, but Willy never
showed up. Bobo also tells Walter that Willy was the one
who had all of the money. Bobo hasn't been able to reach
Willy since. The money is gone.
Walter grabs Bobo by the collar and shakes him furiously.
He is in shock and doesn't know what to do with himself. He
tells Bobo that the money was his entire life. It was the
money he inherited from his dead father, his very "flesh."
Walter then reveals to the family that he gave Willy the
entire $6,500 of insurance money instead of putting some
away for Beneatha.
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Page Number: 134
Before this quote, Asagai has returned to the Younger home
to help Beneatha with packing for the big move. Beneatha
tells Asagai that Walter has lost rest of the insurance
money. Asagai asks her how this makes her feel, and she
replies, "Me, I'm nothing." Beneatha tells Asagai that when
she was a child, she discovered she wanted to be a doctor
when she saw a little boy get badly cut on the face while
sledding. She realized then that "fixing" someone else was
the most "marvelous thing in the world." Beneatha goes on
to tell Asagai that after today, she's learned that there are
things in this world that can't be fixed. Mankind is sick with
something that seems incurable. Asagai tries to help, but
Beneatha tells him that his "Back to Africa" ideals are silly
and that they won't cure anything. Asagai is the ultimate
idealist, but what comes after his ideas of independence?
What is the point of fighting if people don't seem to ever
change?
Here we see Beneatha's tenacity and passion for selfdiscovery deflated by the loss of the insurance money.
Without the money for her education she feels aimless, like
she has lost who she is, and the result of this is that she feels
betrayed by humanity itself.
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Then isn’t there something wrong in a house – in a world! –
where all dreams, good or bad, must depend on the death
of a man? I never thought to see you like this, Alaiyo.
Related Characters: Joseph Asagai (speaker), Beneatha
Younger
Related Themes:
Related Symbols:
Page Number: 135
Explanation and Analysis
This quote happens after Beneatha tells Asagai that she has
given up on her dreams of becoming a doctor. She has also,
in many ways, lost hope in the world. She no longer believes
that humanity can be cured of its problems.
Always an optimist and idealist, Asagai tells Beneatha that
the first step for change is acting, having a voice. Beneatha
tells him that nothing has changed, and that "there is only
one large circle that we march in, around and around," and
that dreams are all a "mirage".
Asagai argues that life isn't a circle but rather a long line.
"We cannot see the end" or how it will change—we cannot
see our dreams but they are there. Asagai then tells
Beneatha that the money didn't belong to her, she has lived
without it and wouldn't have had it at all if her father hadn't
died. He even calls into question the morality of a dream
built upon a man's death. Asagai is disappointed by
Beneatha's aspirations for wealth and how easily her
dreams have deteriorated—if her dreams were purer and
stronger, Asagai seems to argue, they wouldn't be affected
by such setbacks.
Don’t you see that they will be young men and women –
not British soldiers then, but my own black countrymen –
to step out of the shadows some evening and slit my then
useless throat? Don’t you see they have always been there . . .
that they will always be. And that such a thing as my own death
will be an advance?
Related Characters: Joseph Asagai (speaker)
Related Themes:
Page Number: 136
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Explanation and Analysis
This quote happens after Asagai tells Beneatha that he
never expected her to cower when things got tough. He is
saddened and shocked that she has placed so much weight
on her dead father's insurance money. There is something
disconcerting about dreams that only exist because
someone has died.
Beneatha challenges him, saying that she doesn't
understand why he continues to work toward the
impossible. Why does he continue to work toward
aspirations that may never be realized? Asagai answers with
"I Live the Answer!" He tells her that in his village in
Nigeria,freedom is the ability to read and write. It isn't
money or a house or a college education. He goes on to tell
Beneatha that one day he will go home and people won't be
able to understand what he is saying. But he will continue to
teach and work until someone does. This may cause him to
be killed by people who don't agree with him, or it may not.
He may enact change or he may not. But he will incite
others to speak and that possibility, the possibility of moving
others to continue to fight and change the world is the
important thing.
This is a key moment in the discussion of race and
discrimination in A Raisin In The Sun. Asagai speaks about
legacy and the unknown, and how change, while often slowmoving, can happen. He represents the idealist and is an
important voice in the narrative of the black community; an
argument to keep fighting, keep learning, keep struggling to
improve one's life.
Talking ‘bout life, Mama. . . . Mama, you know it’s all divided
up. Life is. Sure enough. Between the takers and the
“tooken.” I’ve figured it out finally. Yeah. Some of us always
getting “tooken.”
Related Characters: Walter Lee Younger (speaker), Lena
Younger (Mama)
Related Themes:
Related Symbols:
Page Number: 141
Explanation and Analysis
Before this quote Mama tells the family that she doesn't
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think it's wise to move to Clybourne Park anymore. Ruth
begs her not to make that decision. She tells Mama that she
will work twenty hours a day with her newborn baby on her
back but she must leave their Southside Chicago apartment.
Walter enters and tells Mama and Ruth that he has made a
call to "The Man" (Mr. Lindner). He is going to invite him
back to the house to do business with him. He goes on to
say that he's realized that life is about people who take and
people who are taken from. He then goes on to tell Mama
and Ruth that he is going to "put on a show" for Lindner,
perform as the stereotypical black man and give him what
he wants to see, hoping that Lindner will pay a larger
amount of money for the house so that the Youngers will
make back the $10,000 they've lost.
Here, Walter reasserts himself as the head of household. He
also finally admits, although in a roundabout way, that he
made a poor decision by giving up a large portion of the
insurance money. This is his effort to fix the problem he's
caused. However in doing so, by degrading himself before
Mr. Lindner Walter is also stripping himself of his own
identity, assimilating to the image of an inferior stereotype.
Son – I come from five generations of people who was
slaves and sharecroppers – but ain’t nobody in my family
never let nobody pay ‘em no money that was a way of telling us
we wasn’t fit to walk the earth. We ain’t never been that poor.
We ain’t never been that – dead inside.
Clybourne Park for being black, and taking a bribe to leave,
is an act of submissiveness to the oppressor. They are giving
into the pressures of a community of people who don't see
them as equals. Here, Mama reminds Walter of her and
thereby hishistory. Although their ancestors weren't free by
law, they had pride and would never let anyone pay them
money to admit that, by being black, they were inherently
lesser or unequal. Self-respect is Mama's moral compass.
Even though her life is unfair, her pride and dignity will
always come first.
Have you cried for that boy today? I don’t mean for
yourself and for the family ‘cause we lost the money. I
mean for him: what he been through and what it done to him.
Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the
most? When they done good and made things easy for
everybody? Well then, you ain’t through learning – because
that ain’t the time at all. It’s when he’s at his lowest and can’t
believe in hisself ‘cause the world done whipped him so!
Related Characters: Lena Younger (Mama) (speaker),
Beneatha Younger, Walter Lee Younger
Related Themes:
Related Symbols:
Page Number: 145
Related Characters: Lena Younger (Mama) (speaker),
Walter Lee Younger
Related Themes:
Related Symbols:
Page Number: 143
Explanation and Analysis
Before this quote, Walter tells Mama that he has called Mr.
Lindner and asked him to return to discuss the house in
Clybourne Park Mama has just purchased. Walter plans on
striking a deal with Lindner and "putting on a show" for him.
Mama is disappointed that Walter would belittle his pride
and self-respect for a profit. She's devastated that Walter
would even consider pretending to be the type of man
Lindner and the white community of Clybourne park has
stereotyped him to be.
Explanation and Analysis
This quote happens after Walter tells the family that he has
asked Mr.Lindner to return to discuss striking a deal. Walter
plans to negotiate with Lindner and try to make the money
that he lost on his liquor store investment back.
Mama and Beneatha are devastated by this. Beneatha
criticizes Walter for stooping so low that he would make a
deal with a man who sees them as unfit to live in his
community. Mama then reprimands Beneatha for her lack of
empathy. She is upset that her children have been so selfish.
Mama explains that she thought that she taught her
children to love each other no matter what. In a time when
the Younger family has had to face so much prejudice for
simply being who they are, Mama begs Beneatha to love
and empathize with her brother. He doesn't have anyone
else, and in the face of so much poverty, racism, and bad
luck, the family has to stick together.
For Mama, allowing themselves to be kicked out of
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And we have decided to move into our house because my
father – my father – he earned it for us brick by brick. We
don’t want to make no trouble for nobody or fight no causes,
and we will try to be good neighbors. And that’s all we got to
say about that. We don’t want your money.
Related Characters: Walter Lee Younger (speaker), Walter
Younger (Big Walter)
Related Themes:
Related Characters: Lena Younger (Mama) (speaker),
Walter Lee Younger
Related Themes:
Page Number: 151
Explanation and Analysis
Related Symbols:
Page Number: 148
Explanation and Analysis
Mr. Lindner arrives back at the Younger home and
expresses that he's happy that Walter has changed his mind
about re-selling their new house in Clybourne Park. Walter
asks Travis to go downstairs but Mama makes him stay,
telling Walter she wants Travis to see what is going to
happen, "where our five generations done come to."
Nervously, Walter goes on to explain to Mr. Lindner that he
comes from a long line of people with a lot of pride. He calls
Travis over and explains that Travis will be the sixth
generation of Youngers in America. Then, in an act of
sudden bravery, Walter tells Lindner that they will keep the
Clybourne Park house. Walter explains that his father
earned that house and died for that house. His family has
worked for five generations for that house, and they
deserve it just as much as anyone else, white or black.
Walter completely shifts his outlook on pride in this
moment. Instead of seeing success and pride as linked to
monetary wealth, he realizes that it is the groundwork of
the people before him, the pride and dignity of his father
and the generations before him, that are important. With
his son—a symbol of the future—on his lap, Walter shows
unwavering commitment to his family and his history, even
in the face of the full power of institutional racism.
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He finally come into his manhood today, didn’t he? Kind of
like a rainbow after the rain . . .
After Mr. Lindner leaves and the moving trucks are packed,
Mama has a moment alone with Ruth before leaving their
apartment for the last time. She tells Ruth that she thinks
Walter has finally come into his own manhood. Like a
rainbow after a storm, Walter's mistakes brought him closer
to his own sense of self as well as giving him a newfound
pride in his history and identity. After this moment, Mama
takes one final look at the apartment, and she stares at her
plant sitting on the table. She feels an overwhelming wave
of an undefined emotion (pain? sadness? fear?) and sticks
her fist in her mouth to hide the scream welling up inside
her. The lights dim and then re-light as she comes back into
the space to grab her beloved plant. She leaves and the play
ends.
Here, although she never says it directly to him, Mama
finally recognizes Walter as a man. After creating a massive
problem for the family in losing their money, he has made
the final decision to move the family to Clybourne park.
Putting his family's best interest first, this decision was in an
effort to provide a better life for Travis and to prove that the
Younger family never has and never will stand down in the
face of oppression. While she's proud of Walter, in this
moment we also see Mama overcome with emotion. Here,
Hansberry hints that although the rainbow has arrived,
more rain may still be on its way.
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SUMMARY AND ANAL
ANALYSIS
YSIS
The color-coded icons under each analysis entry make it easy to track where the themes occur most prominently throughout the
work. Each icon corresponds to one of the themes explained in the Themes section of this LitChart.
ACT 1, SCENE 1
The curtain rises to reveal the Younger family’s living room in
its modest home in Chicago’s Southside. It is seven-thirty and
still “morning dark” inside the clean but cramped apartment.
The “primary feature” of the room is its atmosphere of having
accommodated “the living of too many people for too many
years.” Although its furnishings were once chosen “with love
and even hope,” an aura of “weariness has . . . won in this room.”
As evidence of the apartment’s overcrowding, a young boy,
Travis, sleeps on a “make-down bed” at center stage.
The weary and careworn appearance of the Youngers’ living room
draws attention to the family’s working-class status. The room’s
“tired” furnishings, once chosen with care and pride, highlight the
family’s long dissolved dreams for its cramped home. Nonetheless,
the meticulously cleaned room and furnishings still manifest the
dignity of the Younger family.
An alarm clock rings and Ruth enters. She crosses to the small
window in the cramped kitchen area and raises the shade that
covers the room’s sole source of natural light. A “dusky” light
shines “feebly” into the apartment, and while Ruth begins
preparing breakfast, she calls to her son Travis to wake up.
After her calls are ignored, Ruth goes over to Travis and finally
shakes him out of bed, sending him off to the hallway bathroom
before one of the neighbor’s can occupy it.
As the first of the Youngers to wake up in the morning, Ruth
assumes the duties of a traditional mother, preparing meals for her
family and helping her son get ready for school. The shared hallway
bathroom offers another example of the Youngers’ modest financial
situation.
Ruth’s husband Walter Lee enters from the bedroom, and
almost immediately he mentions the “check” that the family is
expecting the next day. Ruth answers impatiently that it’s too
early to start discussing money, which sparks tension with her
husband. While Ruth prepares breakfast, the couple continues
bickering over yesterday’s late-night gathering that Walter
held for his friends in his son’s makeshift “bedroom.” Walter
dismisses his wife’s complaints by saying that “colored [women]
. . . [is] some eeeevil people at eight o’clock in the morning.”
Walter’s immediate reference to the coming “check” emphasizes the
family’s preoccupation with money. Ruth’s complaints about her
son’s makeshift bedroom also relate directly to the family’s strained
finances. Walter’s comment on “colored” women speaks to his own
insecurities regarding his shaky sense of manhood and also hints at
the ways that hardship can make people blame each other.
Travis returns from the bathroom and signals for his father to
get inside before one of the neighbors beats him to it. Travis
begins eating his breakfast and, like Walter, also asks his
mother about the check that is scheduled to arrive tomorrow.
Travis reminds his mother that he is supposed to bring 50 cents
to school this morning, to which Ruth answers that she “ain’t
got no fifty cents” today. Travis persists in asking for the money
and, exasperated, Ruth refuses and tells her son to be quiet.
Angered by his mother’s resistance, Travis heads for the door,
but before he can leave for school, Ruth gently teases him and
asks for a good-bye kiss. Travis’ frustration fades, and mother
and son embrace and reconcile.
Travis’ mention of the anticipated check shows that the family’s
financial concerns extend to its youngest member. Travis finds his
mother’s refusal to give him the 50 cents that he needs for school
extremely frustrating and embarrassing, since it means that he will
have to reveal his family’s economic struggles to his teacher and
classmates. Nonetheless, familial love reconciles mother and son
after financial strain divides them.
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Walter reenters and, hearing the tail end of the argument
between his wife and son, gives Travis a dollar to take to school,
which greatly angers Ruth. Walter’s defiance of Ruth’s decision
provokes further conflict between husband and wife. In
particular, Ruth criticizes Walter’s friend Willy Harris and his
business schemes, the latest being a liquor store that Harris
has asked Walter to invest in. Walter asks Ruth to try to
persuade his mother, Lena, to use part of the coming check to
invest in the store. Ruth resists the idea and tells Walter to “eat
your eggs.” In response, Walter erupts, accusing his wife of
hampering his dreams. Ruth “wearily” explains her indifference
by telling Walter that he simply “never say nothing new.” Walter
retorts, saying that “colored women . . . don’t understand about
building their men up.”
Unable to stomach the loss of pride that would come with the
denial of his son’s request, Walter shortsightedly gives Travis more
money than the family can spare. Fixated on the dream of providing
a stable financial future for his family, Walter begs his wife to
support him in his ambition to open a liquor store. When Ruth
expresses doubts about the security of such an investment, Walter
lashes out with criticism of African-American women in general,
redirecting his own anxieties towards his wife and blaming her for
his failings as a male provider.
Walter’s sister Beneatha enters from the stage-left bedroom in
the midst of Walter and Ruth’s quarrel. As Ruth irons a massive
pile of clothes, Walter badgers his sister about her decision to
study medicine and the high cost of her schooling. Beneatha
counters sharply and impatiently, and when Walter brings up
the coming check, Beneatha quickly and decisively reminds
Walter, “That money belongs to Mama.” Walter “bitterly” snaps
back, pointing to Beneatha’s own hope that Mama will devote a
portion of the check to her tuition. Walter tells Beneatha to
“stop acting holy” and acknowledge the “sacrifices” that he and
the rest of the family have made so that Beneatha can go to
school. Beneatha, in a semi-mocking tone of gratitude, drops to
her knees and cries, “Forgive me for ever wanting to be
anything at all!”
Walter’s critique of his sister’s dream highlights his traditional view
of gender roles, which Beneatha and her professional ambition
challenge. The issue of money, embodied by the check, again serves
as a point of conflict for the family members. Walter laments the
high cost of Beneatha’s tuition, which would divert money away
from his dream of opening a liquor store. Beneatha’s tongue-incheek apology for “ever wanting to be anything at all” underlines her
pride in her dream and her dismissal of the expectation that women
should give up their own dreams and instead just support men.
Walter goes on to suggest that his sister abandon her dream of
becoming a doctor in favor of being “a nurse like other women,”
or simply getting married. Beneatha responds by telling Walter,
“Thee is mad, boy.” Following his argument with Beneatha,
Walter “slams out of the house” on his way to work. However, a
few moments later, Walter reenters, fumbling with his hat, and
tells Ruth that he needs “some money for carfare,” having given
his last cent to Travis earlier. Ruth gives the money to her
husband and in a “teasing, but tenderly” manner says, “Here,
take a taxi!”
Walter’s attempt to convince his sister to sideline her dream reflects
his uncompromising stance on gender and his determination to
secure Mama’s money in order to fund his own dream. Walter’s reentrance to ask for carfare recalls his imprudent decision to give
Travis his money—foreshadowing future poor decision-making
around money—and Ruth’s reaction shows that she facilitates
Walter’s irresponsibility with money.
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Mama enters from her bedroom and asks Beneatha and Ruth
about the argument with Walter that she just overheard. When
Beneatha exits to go to the bathroom, Ruth reveals that the
siblings’ argument had to do with “that money” that’s arriving in
tomorrow’s check. Ruth asks Mama if she has decided what to
do with the money and encourages her to consider investing in
Walter’s liquor store venture, adding that African Americans
need to “start gambling” on such ventures if they want to get
ahead in life. Mama dismisses the idea, stating, “We ain’t no
business people.” Mama asks Ruth about her sudden support
for Walter’s investment scheme, to which Ruth answers that
“something is happening” between the couple and that Walter
“needs this chance” to restore his self-esteem and repair the
rift in their marriage.
In a drastic change from her earlier conversation with Walter, Ruth
tries to convince her mother-in-law to use the money from the
check in order to fund Walter’s dream, hoping that the fulfillment of
her husband’s ambition will give him the confidence boost needed
to fix their marriage. Mama’s response – “We ain’t no business
people” – takes on a racial dimension in contrast to Ruth’s
statement that African Americans need to start taking chances in
business in order to better their standing in society.
Studying Ruth’s tired face, Mama suggests that Ruth call in sick
to work today, an idea that Ruth swiftly refuses, stating that the
family “need[s] the money.” With the mention of money, the
conversation promptly circles back to the anticipated check,
which Mama reveals is a $10,000 insurance payment resulting
from her husband’s recent death. Mama declares that some of
the money must be set aside for Beneatha’s schooling. As for
the remaining amount, Mama “tentatively” begins to tell Ruth
of her and her late husband Big Walter’s deferred dream of
buying a house. Mama suggests that she might use part of the
insurance money as a down payment on a “little old two-story
somewhere, with a yard where Travis could play.”
Big Walter’s insurance policy represents the interconnectedness of
the play’s themes of money, dignity, and dreams. The cost of
acquiring and maintaining the $10,000 policy during Big Walter’s
life would have placed a considerable financial burden on the man,
although the policy now makes possible the fulfillment of at least
some of his family’s dreams. Through his death, Big Walter
continues to provide for his family and helps to reinforce its sense of
dignity and pride.
In a “reflective mood,” Mama smiles and reminisces about her
marriage, stating that she and Big Walter only intended to stay
in their current apartment for “no more than a year.” Growing
sad at her “dissolved dream,” Mama recalls the loss of her baby
Claude and the difficulties of her marriage, including Big
Walter’s “wild” way with women. Mama states that, for all his
faults, her husband “sure loved his children,” and he often said,
“Seem like God didn’t see fit to give the black man nothing but
dreams – but He did give us children to make them dreams
seem worth while.”
Mama betrays herself as a member of an older generation with
different thoughts on marriage when she reveals that she tolerated
her late husband’s womanizing. Mama’s remembrance of Big
Walter’s statement about the chronic deferment of the “black
man[‘s]” dreams draws attention to the widespread racial
inequalities and prejudices in America that limited African
Americans’ employment, educational, and housing opportunities.
Beneatha returns from the bathroom and angers Mama by
“reciting the scriptures in vain” when she exclaims “Christ’s
sakes” in response to a neighbor’s noisy vacuuming. Beneatha
then mentions her after-school guitar lesson that evening,
which provokes snide comments from Mama and Ruth, who
proceed to rattle off the long list of Beneatha’s discarded – and
expensive – hobbies. Beneatha defends her experimentation
with different hobbies as part of her effort to “express” herself,
which prompts “raucous laughter” from Mama and Ruth.
Although Beneatha defends and takes pride in her quest for a form
of personal “expression,” Mama and Ruth can’t help but laugh at
Beneatha’s youthful effort to define her identity, which represents
an unimaginable luxury to these women of earlier, pre-feminist
generations. The money devoted to Beneatha’s hobbies underscores
the family members’ financial tug-of-war.
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Mama then changes the subject to Beneatha’s love life, asking
whom she will go on a date with tomorrow night. “With
displeasure,” Beneatha says it will be George Murchison, a
“rich” young man whom she condemns as “shallow.” Ruth
disagrees with Beneatha’s dismissal of George, asking her,
“What other qualities a man got to have” in addition to his
wealth? Beneatha resists her sister-in-law’s advice, affirming
that she first and foremost intends to become a doctor and
only then will she consider whom to marry – that is, “If I ever
get married.”
Ruth and Beneatha have a difference of opinion when it comes to
the relevance of wealth in choosing a mate; however, Ruth’s own
decision to marry the working-class Walter shows that she hasn’t
necessarily heeded her own advice. In the face of societal – and
familial – pressure to marry, Beneatha prioritizes her independence
and freedom over love or the financial security that comes from
marriage.
After recovering from the shock of Beneatha’s comment,
Mama says that Beneatha will certainly fulfill her dream of
becoming a doctor, “God willing.” Beneatha chafes at the
mention of God, responding that divine will “doesn’t have a
thing to do with it.” Beneatha continues, delivering a speech in
which she coolly declares, “God is just one idea I don’t accept.”
After absorbing the speech, Mama slowly crosses to Beneatha
and “powerfully” slaps her, and then with “cool emotion” makes
her repeat, “In my mother’s house there is still God.” Beneatha
acquiesces and Mama exits. To Ruth, Beneatha calls Mama “a
tyrant” before leaving for school.
Beneatha prides herself on the progress that she has made towards
achieving her dream of becoming a doctor, which is why she resists
Mama’s suggestion that God has a role in the fulfillment of her
ambition. On the other hand, Mama takes pride and finds strength
in her religious convictions, which she has tried to instill in her
children. Mama’s reprimand of Beneatha signifies the pride that she
takes in maintaining a certain type of home for her family. The
entire exchange shows that Mama is still the leader of this family.
Mama reenters and expresses her deep concern for her
children, telling Ruth, “There’s something come down between
me and them that don’t let us understand each other.” Tending
to her struggling plant by the apartment’s tiny window, she
continues to think aloud and, with her back to Ruth, fails to
realize that her daughter-in-law is growing faint. At last Mama
turns to find that Ruth has “slipped” to the floor in a faint.
Mama’s unending attention to her struggling houseplant symbolizes
the pride that she takes in tending to her fractured family and
maintaining its sense of dignity and integrity, despite the rough and
suffocating conditions. Ruth’s unexplained fainting ends the scene
with a note of tension and uncertainty.
ACT 1, SCENE 2
The following Saturday morning Beneatha and Mama clean the
apartment thoroughly, a regular occurrence in the Younger
household. Travis asks his grandmother if he can go outside to
play on the street, and Mama agrees, as long as he keeps a
“good lookout” for the postman, who is supposed to deliver the
insurance check that morning. After Travis exits, Beneatha
asks Mama where Ruth is, and Mama says “with meaning” that
Ruth has gone to the doctor, implying that Ruth is pregnant.
The phone rings and interrupts their conversation.
The Youngers’ Saturday morning ritual of cleaning the apartment
shows the pride that the family takes in maintaining its home. The
tantalizing arrival of the insurance check creates an expectant
atmosphere. Similarly, the speculation over Ruth’s pregnancy
imbues the scene with a sense of anxiety and tension.
Beneatha answers the phone and has a brief conversation with
her classmate, Joseph Asagai, who asks if he may visit Beneatha
later that morning. Beneatha agrees. Beneatha explains to
Mama that Asagai is a Nigerian student whom she met on
campus and she asks Mama to refrain from asking “ignorant
questions” about Africa when he comes to the apartment.
Mama retorts, “Why should I know anything about Africa?”
Beneatha’s request that her mother refrain from asking ignorant
questions about Africa underscores the fact that many mid-century
African Americans knew little about African life and culture.
Furthermore, seeing themselves as Americans, some African
Americans questioned why it was necessary to have extensive
knowledge of Africa.
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Ruth enters “forlornly” and confirms Mama’s suspicion that she
is pregnant. While Mama is overcome with “grandmotherly
enthusiasm,” Beneatha and Ruth worry about the financial
strain that a child will place on the family. When Beneatha asks
Ruth if she planned the pregnancy, Ruth dismisses the
question, and Beneatha snaps, “Where is he [the unborn child]
going to live, on the roof?” Beneatha then tries to backpedal,
half-heartedly saying that the baby will be “wonderful.”
Ruth’s pregnancy is immediately coupled with economic concerns.
Ruth bears the responsibility not only for literally carrying the child,
but also for shouldering a significant part of the accompanying
financial burden. Ruth and Beneatha, part of a younger generation
of women, differ from Mama in their reactions to the news.
Suddenly, there is a “commotion” in the street, and Beneatha
calls out of the window and orders Travis to come upstairs.
While waiting for Travis, Mama asks Ruth about her visit to the
doctor, and Ruth’s use of the pronoun “she” to refer to the
doctor makes Mama “immediately suspicious.” Travis enters
and breathlessly describes how he and his friends chased and
killed a rat in the street. Travis’ story brings his dispirited
mother to tears. Seeing Ruth crying, Beneatha sends Travis
back outside to play, “but not with any rats.” Just then, Asagai
rings the doorbell and enters, and Mama takes a fragile Ruth to
her bedroom to rest.
Travis’ story highlights the harshness of life in the segregated South
Side of Chicago and reignites Ruth’s fears that the family’s current
home is an unsuitable place for her son (or, now, her baby) to grow
up. Ruth’s maternal responsibilities force her to consider broader
social forces at play. Mama, a traditionalist, senses from the fact
that Ruth saw a woman doctor that Ruth may be thinking of doing
something that perhaps a male, traditional doctor would not
support—get an abortion.
Asagai notices that Beneatha looks rattled and asks if
something is wrong, to which Beneatha says, “Yes . . . we’ve all
got acute ghetto-itis.” Asagai gives Beneatha a gift of records
and traditional Nigerian robes. As Beneatha models the robes,
he compliments her appearance, teasingly adding that she
looks good even with “mutilated” hair. Beneatha is taken aback
by this comment and explains that she straightens her hair
because it is easier to manage that way. Asagai implies that
Beneatha’s straightened hairstyle marks her as an
“assimilationist,” which Beneatha resolutely denies. Asagai then
expresses his romantic feelings for Beneatha, but about such
feelings she responds, “By itself – it won’t do.”
Asagai’s comments about Beneatha’s hair make her question
whether she is an Africanist or an assimilationist. Although
Beneatha takes interest in her African heritage, her straightened
hair projects a message of assimilation, of “managing” her black
attributes to make it easier to fit in, which Beneatha abhors.
Beneatha’s hair is also tied to her identity as a woman and
traditional – i.e., white – notions of feminine beauty. Beneatha’s
statement that the family suffers from “ghetto-itis” draws attention
to the perils of life in a segregated “ghetto” neighborhood. Her
reaction that Asagai’s love is not enough is an expression of her
desire not just for love but for a partner dedicated to her equality
and freedom as well.
Before Asagai can exit, Mama reenters and Beneatha
introduces her to Asagai. Honoring her promise to Beneatha,
Mama refrains from asking Asagai ignorant questions and
instead parrots Beneatha’s earlier complaints about “American
Negroes” who “know nothing about Africa ‘cept Tarzan.”
Following her somewhat forced “recitation,” Mama relaxes and
extends an open invitation to Asagai for “some decent homecooked meals.” Asagai is “moved” by her hospitality.
Mama’s recitation shows that she, while perhaps not as interested
in her African heritage as Beneatha, is willing to make an effort in
order to make her guest feel at home. Mama’s hospitality is a
reflection of the pride that she takes in her family and its treatment
of others.
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As he goes to exit, Asagai calls Beneatha by a Yoruba nickname,
“Alaiyo.” Mama and Beneatha ask about the meaning of the
nickname, and after thinking for a moment Asagai answers that
it means, “One for Whom Bread – Food – Is Not Enough.”
Beneatha understands the significance and thanks Asagai for
the nickname. He exits.
With the nickname, Asagai acknowledges and celebrates
Beneatha’s aspirations and desire for something more than just the
basics, whether in love or life, which she deeply appreciates.
Beneatha takes pride in her African nickname and its ability to
accurately represent her dedication to her dreams.
Beneatha gazes at herself in the mirror and “clutches at her
hair,” squinting her eyes “as if trying to imagine something.”
Suddenly, she grabs her coat and heads for the door, telling a
confused Mama that she is going out, “To become a queen of
the Nile!”
To honor her African identity, Beneatha realizes that she must allow
her hair to display its natural, unassimilated form. She embraces
natural hair as an alternative ideal of beauty, and sees herself as
embracing her African heritage.
Ruth reenters from the bedroom and, soon after, the doorbell
rings, a sudden sound that signals that the mailman has arrived
with the insurance check. Ruth sends Travis downstairs to get
it. Travis returns moments later and Mama opens the envelope.
As she sees the check, Mama’s face “sobers to a mask of
unhappiness.” Mama grows thoughtful and thinks of her late
husband. Abruptly and “angrily,” Mama again asks Ruth about
her visit to the doctor. Ruth “avoids her eyes” and evades her
questions, confirming Mama’s suspicion that Ruth is
considering an abortion.
Mama’s reaction to the check shows the negative consequences of
money, as the question of its use weighs heavily on Mama, as well as
the fact that this money was “earned” through the death of her
husband, and as such can’t possibly be worth what it “cost” to get it.
The issue of abortion, which Ruth considers and Mama implicitly
rejects, highlights the generational differences between the women.
The fact that Ruth considers an abortion, an illegal practice at the
time, shows the lengths to which she would go to protect her family
from further financial strain.
Walter rushes into the apartment and immediately asks to see
the insurance check. He launches into a discussion of his
proposal to use the money as an investment in a liquor store.
Mama stops Walter and suggests that he speak to his wife
privately, but he ignores her. Mama tells Walter that she will
not invest any of the insurance money in the liquor store and
this refusal to even consider the proposal makes Walter angry.
As Mama tries to persuade Walter and Ruth to have a “civil”
conversation, Walter and Ruth hurl insults at each other, with
Walter shouting that Ruth was his “biggest mistake” as she exits
and slams the bedroom door.
Mama’s refusal to support Walter’s dream frustrates and
emasculates him, eroding his sense of his worth in being what he
feels he should be: a husband and father, a man, who can support
his family. The insurance check prompts intra-family conflict, as
arguments about money quickly become larger struggles concerning
personal identity, personal dreams, and family dynamics.
Mama asks Walter what’s troubling him, commenting that for
the past few years “something [has been] eating you up like a
crazy man.” She calls him out on his constant combativeness
and binge drinking, imploring him to be kinder to his wife.
Walter responds, “I want so many things that they are driving
me kind of crazy.” Mama replies by saying that Walter should
value the “nice wife” and good job that he has, to which Walter
answers, “Mama, a job? I open and close car doors all day long. .
. . Mama, that ain’t no kind of job . . . that ain’t nothing at all.”
Walter explains that he sees a future that is “full of nothing”
looming before him.
To a great extent, Walter’s dreams center on the “many things” that
he wants, highlighting the centrality of material wealth in his
formation of a personal identity. Walter explains that his work as a
white man’s chauffeur is emasculating and limits his hopes for a
better future. Walter’s statements show how racial discrimination
regarding job opportunities curbed many African Americans’
dreams for social advancement, and locked them into the role,
essentially, of servants.
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Mama critiques Walter’s overriding emphasis on the
importance of money, to which he responds that money “is life.”
Mama disagrees, saying, “Once upon a time freedom used to be
life. . . . In my time we was worried about not being lynched and
getting to the North if we could and how to stay alive and still
have a pinch of dignity too.” Mama laments that her children
have no pride in the accomplishments of her generation.
Mama attempts to discredit Walter’s money-centric worldview by
reminding him of the life-or-death struggles endured by earlier
generations of African Americans. In Mama’s mind, dignity and
freedom are virtues far more precious than material wealth. Walter
cannot accept Mama’s views, which he finds naive.
Mama finally tells Walter that Ruth is pregnant and considering
an abortion. Walter is shocked but insists that Ruth would
never think of doing such a thing. Mama disagrees, saying,
“When the world gets ugly enough – a woman will do anything
for her family. The part that’s already living.” Ruth reenters and
confirms Mama’s statement. Mama begs her son to convince
his wife to keep the baby, pleading, “I’m waiting to see you stand
up and look like your daddy and say we done give up one baby
to poverty and that we ain’t going to give up nary another one.”
Walter cannot bring himself to say anything and exits. Mama
calls Walter “a disgrace to your father’s memory.”
Mama implores Walter to honor his father’s memory and take pride
in his own manhood by convincing Ruth to not have an abortion.
However, Walter is unable to rise to the challenge, dejected as he is
by Mama’s refusal to support his dreams. He finds it hard to act as a
man in the way his mother wants when she does not treat him as a
man in the same way she treated his father. Also, Mama is asking
Walter to save his unborn child from a death inflicted by “poverty,”
but Walter’s obsession with material wealth prevents him from
taking such a stand because the baby will only make that poverty
worse and make his dreams even less achievable.
ACT 2, SCENE 1
That evening, Ruth is ironing and listening to the radio when
Beneatha enters “grandly” from her bedroom, wearing the
robes and headdress that Asagai gave her that morning. She
tells Ruth, “You are looking at what a well-dressed Nigerian
woman wears.” Beneatha also carries an “ornate oriental fan,”
which is “mistakenly” more reminiscent of Asia than Africa.
Ruth is dumbfounded as Beneatha proudly “parades” around
the room. Beneatha goes over to the radio and turns off the
“good loud blues” that Ruth was listening to, saying, “Enough of
this assimilationist junk!” Beneatha puts on one of the Nigerian
records that Asagai gave her and begins dancing and singing
along with the African melody.
With her costume and music choice, Beneatha embraces her
African heritage. Nonetheless, her mistakenly “oriental” fan signifies
that Beneatha still lacks a fully developed sense or understanding of
true African identity. Additionally, Beneatha celebrates her African
heritage at the expense of her African-American identity, dismissing
the “good loud blues”—an musical style that emerged from the
African-American experience—as whitewashed “assimilationist
junk.”
Walter enters during Beneatha’s “performance” and he is
clearly drunk. Although he first watches the spectacle with
“distaste,” he gradually warms to the music, saying that, “them
drums move me.” Ruth ignores her husband’s drunken antics,
but Beneatha encourages Walter’s behavior, fascinated and
“thoroughly caught up with this side of him.” Shouting cries in
Yoruba, Walter leaps onto the table and completely loses
himself in a fantasy in which he is “a great chief, a descendant of
Chaka.” The lighting “shifts subtly” to convey the intensity of
Walter’s vision. Suddenly, Ruth turns off the music and George
Murchison arrives at the apartment, putting an end to Walter’s
fantasy.
Uncharacteristically, Walter embraces his African heritage, but only
in a fleeting moment of fantasy. Walter’s communion with his
African identity centers on regaining the lost status and majesty of
African leaders, which was stolen from many African-Americans
through the transatlantic slave trade. Walter imagines himself as a
“great chief,” a fantasy that connects to his desire to fulfill a
traditional male role as a powerful protector and provider for his
family.
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Embarrassed, Ruth orders Walter off of the table. He exits.
Looking at Beneatha’s African garb, George tells Beneatha to
go dress properly for their date, snidely saying that they’re
going to the theater, not performing in it. In response, Beneatha
stares at him and “ceremoniously” takes off the headdress,
revealing her newly “close-cropped and unstraightened” hair.
Ruth and George are both shocked by Beneatha’s “nappy” hair.
While Beneatha proudly declares her hair “natural,” George
calls it “eccentric.” Beneatha accuses George of being an
“assimilationist” Negro, and George replies by saying that the
“heritage” of which Beneatha is so proud is “nothing but . . .
some grass huts!” Infuriated, Beneatha recites a litany of
African accomplishments while Ruth pushes her towards her
bedroom.
George and Beneatha situate themselves on opposing sides of the
argument surrounding African-American assimilation. Beneatha
uses her natural hair as a visible marker of her protest against
assimilation, while George uses his social status in order to reap the
benefits of membership in the mainstream of society. According to
Beneatha, George denies his heritage and thus sacrifices his pride.
George, in contrast, from his self-pride in his own family’s success,
sees a focus on African heritage as being juvenile. Meanwhile, Ruth
falls in the middle of this debate, possessing neither George’s social
standing nor Beneatha’s fierce dedication to a largely foreign
cultural identity.
Ruth tries to make small talk with George while Beneatha
dresses. George, fairly indifferent, ignores most of Ruth’s
chitchat, only commenting in order to display his knowledge of
culture and to boast about his visits to New York. Walter
reenters and critiques George’s expensive-looking “college
boy” outfit. Getting a beer from the fridge, Walter moves on to
another topic, asking George about his father’s business
ventures. Walter tries to get George interested in his
investment ideas, telling him, “I got some plans that could turn
this city upside down.” Visibly bored, George dismisses Walter’s
talk, which offends Walter.
George uses his social standing to elevate himself above what he
sees as the stigma of his racial identity (and acts like a stuck-up jerk
in doing so). Walter both abhors George’s outward signs of wealth,
such as his outfit, and deeply covets them, as evidenced by his
attempt to interest George in his business ideas. Walter’s dreams
revolve around wealth; they center on obtaining money itself and
are likewise unachievable without money. George’s obsessions seem
similar—having achieved wealth, he sees it as justifying his own
sense of superiority.
Walter then launches into a critique of George’s college
education, questioning whether his expensive schooling is
“teaching you how to be a man?” With “distaste,” George
responds by telling Walter, “You’re all wacked up with
bitterness, man.” Walter counters, saying, “I’m a volcano. . . . I am
a giant – surrounded by ants!” Walter expresses his frustration
that “not even my own mother” supports his dreams, but
Beneatha’s reentrance puts an abrupt stop to his complaints.
Beneatha and George leave, and George sarcastically tells
Walter, “Good night, Prometheus,” as he exits.
Walter’s fears about his worth as a man lead him to question
George’s manhood. Taking a defensive stance, Walter describes
himself as a “volcano” in an attempt to fortify his male identity.
George’s reference to “Prometheus,” a Greek demigod who stole fire
from Zeus, is intended to mock Walter’s grand business dreams and
also to draw attention to George’s own knowledge (George is
putting himself in the position of being the God).
After George exits, Ruth and Walter puzzle over the meaning
of “Prometheus.” Ruth advises Walter to ignore it, but Walter is
“in fury” over George’s “insult.” Ruth then tries to broach the
subject of her pregnancy, but Walter dismisses her “nagging.”
Walter states that he spent the afternoon “talking with people
who understand me,” and Ruth correctly assumes that he is
referring to Willy Harris. Ruth grows impatient, and Walter
bitterly snaps that he is “tied up in a race of people that don’t
know how to do nothing but moan, pray and have babies!” Ruth
“softly” appeals to Walter to “stop fighting” her, and Walter
slowly begins to cool down.
With his insult to Ruth about African-American women, Walter
attempts to blame his own failings and insecurities on the women
who surround him. His insult packs even more punch in light of
Ruth’s recently discovered pregnancy. Nonetheless, Ruth “softly”
tries to resolve the couple’s issues, highlighting her dedication to her
marriage and family.
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Ruth resignedly puts away the iron and clothes and prepares to
go to bed. She apologizes to Walter for “this new baby” and
states that she “better go on and do what I started,” meaning
that she intends to go through with the abortion. Ruth tries to
offer Walter hot milk or coffee to counteract the effect of “all
that liquor” that Walter drank. When Walter questions why
Ruth is always trying to give him something to eat, Ruth
pleadingly asks him, “What else can I give you, Walter Lee
Younger?” Walter’s mood softens, and he begins to talk to his
wife about the way that “something done come down between
us.” They slowly and “gently” begin to broach the problems in
their marriage, and in a moment of intimacy they kiss “tenderly
and hungrily.”
Walter again has the chance to talk Ruth out of having an abortion,
but he says nothing. Walter’s unspoken approval of Ruth’s decision
shows that he still fails to meet Mama’s expectations for a man. His
silence also indicates that he leaves the burden of this monumental
decision on his wife’s shoulders. Nonetheless, in a rare moment of
intimacy—created when Ruth makes it clear that her offers of food
are not ways to avoid his dreams but the only way she can support
him—the couple seems to make limited progress towards solving the
problems in their marriage, although they still lack agreement on
several important issues.
Suddenly, Mama enters the apartment and ends Ruth and
Walter’s intimate moment. At first, Mama ignores Walter and
speaks only to Ruth, asking her where Travis is. Ruth tells
Mama that Travis still hasn’t come home yet, saying that he is
“going to get it” once he returns. Finally, Mama acknowledges
Walter’s questions about where she went that afternoon,
saying only that she had “to tend to some business.” Walter
angrily worries that she did “something crazy” with the
insurance money. Travis enters and tries to explain his
lateness, but Ruth cuts him off and tells him to go to the
bedroom and prepare for “your beating.” But Mama calls Travis
to her and tells him that she “bought you a house” with the
insurance money. Walter erupts “in fury” and Ruth pushes
Travis towards the bedroom.
For Walter, the fulfillment of Mama’s dream for a house spells the
death of his own dream for owning a liquor store. The insurance
money again functions as a wedge that drives the family members
farther apart. In Walter’s eyes, the new house symbolizes the
continued deferment of his dream. But for Mama the money
created a possibility for Travis—who, as is implied here, in the
neighborhood where they now live is getting into trouble, getting
punished, and suddenly she can give him a different possibility.
Ruth is thrilled with the news that Mama bought a house for
the family, raising her arms and shouting, “PRAISE GOD!”
Walter says nothing, and Ruth implores him to “let me be glad . .
. you be glad too.” She places her hand on his shoulder, but he
“roughly” pulls away. Ruth asks Mama questions about the
house, and she answers “tentatively,” trying to convince Walter
to accept her decision. Speaking to her son’s turned back,
Mama explains, “It’s just a plain little old house – but it’s made
good and solid – and it will be ours.”
Mama tries to convince Walter to accept her dream and to
recognize its value, but he cannot. He needs the dream to be his
own—he needs to be the one providing. Mama takes immense pride
in the realization of her and Big Walter’s deferred dream. She also
prides herself on the fact that the family will own its home, however
humble it may be. For Mama, ownership of the house symbolizes
personal freedom as well.
Ruth asks Mama where the house is located, and Mama,
nervously responds that it’s in Clybourne Park. Ruth’s jubilance
“fades abruptly” and Walter finally faces his mother with
bitterness and “hostility.” Ruth says that there “ain’t no colored
people living in Clybourne Park,” and Walter angrily mocks the
so-called “peace and comfort” that Mama bought for the family.
Mama explains her decision, telling Walter that she “just tried
to find the nicest place for the least amount of money.”
Mama’s explains that her choice of neighborhood was financial, but,
as evidenced by her reluctance to sharing this detail with Ruth and
Walter, she clearly has some concerns about the situation. Mama’s
dilemma highlights the racial prejudices that severely limited
African Americans’ options for suitable, safe, and affordable housing
in segregated cities.
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Ruth recovers from this revelation and regains her previous
radiance, shouting, “GOOD-BYE MISERY,” and expressing her
joy at the prospect of leaving the cramped apartment. Holding
her abdomen, Ruth recognizes the possibility that the “life” she
is bearing “pulses with happiness and not despair.” “Collecting
herself,” Ruth exits to deal with Travis.
The fulfillment of Ruth’s hope for an escape from the family’s
cramped living situation gives her the opportunity to imagine a
happy future for her unborn child. Her pregnancy is no longer a
burden, but instead signifies hope and expectation. This shows that
her desire to get an abortion was entirely the product of the family's
poverty, not a personal choice.
After a long pause, Mama carefully tries to justify her decision
to buy a house to Walter. She tells him that she saw her family
“falling to pieces” that morning when they talked about “killing
babies and wishing each other was dead.” She explains that the
family needs to “push on out and do something bigger,” and she
asks Walter to understand her motivation. “Silent and sullen,”
Walter calmly tells Mama that she doesn’t need his approval
because, as head of the family, Mama “run[s] our lives like you
want to.” In an effort to hurt his mother, Walter tells Mama that
she “butchered up a dream of mine.” He exits and Mama “sits
alone, thinking heavily.”
For Mama, the earlier events of the day, with the talk of abortion,
signaled a low point for her family. Mama tells Walter that the
house will be a new beginning, a unifying force that can repair the
family’s bonds. However, Walter cannot find hope in the promise of
a new home, seeing only the death of his own dream. If his family is
going to end up in a comfortable home, he wants to be the one to
earn that home. With his closing line, Walter uses his deferred
dream as a barb, intentionally trying to hurt Mama.
ACT 2, SCENE 2
On a Friday night a few weeks later, George and Beneatha
enter the apartment after a date. Packing crates, signifying the
family’s upcoming move, dot the room. As George and
Beneatha sit on the couch, George tries to kiss her, but
Beneatha pulls away, attempting to continue their
conversation. “Exasperated,” George tells Beneatha to cut out
“the moody stuff” and “not spoil” the evening. He states that
Beneatha is a “nice-looking girl” but that he doesn’t date her “to
hear all about your thoughts.” In response, Beneatha asks
George about the purpose of getting an education, to which
George answers that the point is simply to “pass the course – to
get the degree.” Having heard enough, Beneatha tells George
good night. George exits and passes Mama as she enters the
apartment.
George’s admission that his interest in Beneatha is only skindeep—that he likes her looks but doesn't care about her
thoughts—flies in the face of Beneatha’s personal pride and sense of
self. She refuses to be taken only as a “nice-looking girl,” demanding
recognition as an independent-minded young woman whose ideas
are to be valued. George’s cynical response about the purpose of
schooling, that it's really just a game to get the piece of paper that
helps you go out in the world and make money—runs counter to
Beneatha’s idealistic belief in the transformative power of
education. Beneatha wants to become a doctor to be able to help
people.
Mama asks Beneatha about her date, and Beneatha responds
by telling her mother that, “George is a fool.” Mama replies
matter-of-factly by saying that Beneatha shouldn’t waste her
time “with no fools.” Touched by her mother’s response,
Beneatha thanks Mama for “understanding me this time.”
Beneatha exits and Mama smiles.
In light of their differences, generational and otherwise, Beneatha is
touched by Mama’s ability to understand her point of view. She
values her mother’s support, especially as it bears on her identity
and self-worth as a woman. This also marks a change in Mama,
brought about by the harm she sees that she has done to Walter.
Now, rather than insisting that she can't understand her children,
Mama is trying to support them.
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Ruth enters and Mama asks if Walter is home. Ruth says that
he is and implicitly adds that Walter is drunk. Someone knocks
on the door and Ruth and Mama share a “weary and knowing”
look, aware that it is their meddling neighbor. Ruth opens the
door and Mrs. Johnson enters, carrying a newspaper. Mama
and Ruth politely greet Mrs. Johnson, who brazenly pats the
pregnant Ruth’s stomach and states that she is “just soooooo
happy for y’all” in reference to the Youngers’ coming move.
Mama, “doubting the total sincerity” of Mrs. Johnson’s
comments, nonetheless maintains her politeness, offering Mrs.
Johnson a slice of pie.
Despite Mrs. Johnson's meddling and overly familiar manner, Mama
and Ruth keep a cool head and maintain their politeness, showing
the pride that they take in their family and its reputation for
hospitality. Although they clearly do not enjoy Mrs. Johnson’s visits,
they treat her kindly as a courtesy.
Mrs. Johnson asks Mama and Ruth if they “seen the news
what’s all over the colored paper this week,” eagerly telling
them “with the spirit of catastrophe” that an African-American
family was “bombed” out of his home in a white neighborhood
of Chicago. Mrs. Johnson continues melodramatically,
insincerely saying that she thinks that, “It’s wonderful how our
folks keeps on pushing out.” In her speech, Mrs. Johnson uses
the term “nigger,” which angers Mama, who doesn’t allow the
word to be used in her house.
Mama’s sense of dignity and personal pride contribute to her
prohibition of this racial slur in her household. Additionally, the
story of the bombing draws attention to the very real dangers that
accompany the family’s move and the violent extent of Northern
racism.
In a not-so-subtle way, Mrs. Johnson asks for a cup of coffee,
which Ruth and Mama give her. Mrs. Johnson then asks about
Walter, going on to discuss his ambition and good looks and
guessing that it was his idea to move the family to Clybourne
Park. Mrs. Johnson imagines next month’s headlines in the
colored newspaper, gleefully and dramatically suggesting,
“NEGROES INVADE CYLBOURNE PARK – BOMBED!” Ruth
and Mama gaze at Mrs. Johnson “in amazement,” and she
disingenuously adds that of course she hopes that no harm will
befall the Younger family.
At this point, Mrs. Johnson has clearly overstayed her welcome and
appears to derive pleasure from filling the Younger household with
fear. Ruth and Mama are shocked by Mrs. Johnson’s shameless
comments, which run counter to the Youngers’ deep sense of dignity.
Mrs. Johnson’s imagined headline gives voice to the Youngers’ own
worst fears about the outcome of their move, and also imply that
Mrs. Johnson doesn't want to see the Youngers thrive or do well in a
way she herself isn't. She seems to resent their desire to escape from
the place where she herself lives.
Wearing a bathrobe, Beneatha enters from her bedroom and
heads to the bathroom. On her way, she “crisply” says hello to
Mrs. Johnson, who is insulted by Beneatha’s curt manner. After
Beneatha exits, Mrs. Johnson tells Mama and Ruth that
Beneatha acts as if she “ain’t got time to pass the time of day
with nobody ain’t been to college.” Mrs. Johnson then mentions
Walter’s dissatisfaction with his work as a chauffeur, but states
that he shouldn’t be ashamed because there “ain’t nothing
wrong with being a chauffeur.” Mama objects, saying that there
is “plenty wrong” with it and repeating her late husband’s belief
that “being any kind of servant wasn’t a fit thing for a man to
have to be.”
Mrs. Johnson criticizes the pride that Beneatha takes in her
education, which Mrs. Johnson believes is excessive. Mrs. Johnson
contrasts Beneatha’s self-satisfaction with Walter’s disappointment
with his work as a chauffeur, which she conversely tries to defend as
an honorable profession. In a change from her earlier stance, Mama
rejects Mrs. Johnson argument, acknowledging the emasculating
aspect of her son’s work. Mama recognizes the racial prejudice that
limits her son’s job opportunities.
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Mrs. Johnson bristles at Mama’s speech, declaring that the
Youngers are “one proud-acting bunch of colored folks.” She
then quotes assimilationist Booker T. Washington’s dictum that,
“Education has spoiled many a good plow hand.” Mama
responds by calling Washington a “fool.” Offended, Mrs.
Johnson exits. Beneatha reenters and Mama lightly scolds her
behavior towards Mrs. Johnson, to which Beneatha responds,
“If there are two things we, as a people, have got to overcome,
one is the Ku Klux Klan – and the other is Mrs. Johnson.”
Beneatha exits.
Mama takes a stance against Mrs. Johnson’s defeatist brand of
assimilation, standing up for her children and their dreams for a
better future. Mrs. Johnson views the Youngers’ pride as a negative
quality, one that mistakenly allows them to see themselves as
exceptional. Beneatha’s statement that equates Mrs. Johnson and
the KKK show the extent to which she believes assimilationist
ideology is a scourge on the African-American community.
The telephone rings and Ruth answers it. Mrs. Arnold, the wife
of Walter’s employer, is on the line and tells Ruth that Walter
hasn’t been to work in three days. She warns Ruth that Mr.
Arnold will find a new chauffeur if Walter doesn’t come in
tomorrow. Ruth, unaware of her husband’s absences,
nonetheless covers for Walter, telling Mrs. Arnold that Walter
has been very ill. Ruth hangs up and asks Walter, now standing
in the bedroom’s doorway, about his behavior. Walter tells
Mama and Ruth that he spent the three days by himself, driving
around in Willy Harris’ car and walking around Chicago. He
says that he went to a bar called the Green Hat, where he
listened to the “best little combo in the world.” Ruth exits and
Mama continues to listen to Walter’s dejected and drunken
ramblings.
Walter’s irresponsible behavior displays the extremely detrimental
effect that the deferral of his dream has had on him. Walter has lost
all hope and motivation, completely abandoning his duties as a
husband and father. Additionally, at this point Ruth is unable or
unwilling to combat her husband’s irresponsibility with the family’s
financial security, leaving the room after she hears enough of his
drunken ramblings.
Overcome with guilt, Mama realizes that she has unknowingly
contributed to Walter’s descent into depression by refusing to
support his dream for a liquor store. She admits that, “I been
doing to you what the rest of the world been doing to you,” but
explains to Walter that she “ain’t never really wanted nothing
that wasn’t for you.” She takes an envelope from her handbag
and places it in front of Walter. She explains that she has
already paid $3,500 as a down payment on the house. She gives
control over the remaining $6,500 of the insurance payment
to Walter. She tells him to put $3,000 in a savings account for
Beneatha’s schooling but gives him complete control over how
to spend the rest of the money. Mama makes Walter “head of
this family from now on like you supposed to be.” Mama exits.
As was evident during her conversation with Mrs. Johnson, Mama
realizes that her denial of Walter’s dream has only added to the
many limitations that already curb Walter’s opportunities for
advancement. In the hopes of restoring part of his identity and selfesteem, Mama gives Walter control of the money, which gives him
control over his future. Mama turns over the money and leadership
of the family, allowing Walter to finally assume the role of an adult
in the household, which is what he needs to be able to see himself as
"man".
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Deeply moved by his mother’s gesture, Walter is filled with a
sense of “mingled joy and desperation.” Travis enters for bed
and Walter “sweetly” begins to talk him. Walter asks his son
“what kind of man” he wants to be when he grows up. Travis
answers that he wants to be a bus driver, but Walter says that
Travis’ dream “ain’t big enough.” Walter tells Travis that “after
tonight” he will be able to provide financially for the family. He
says that he plans to make a “business transaction” that will
change their lives. Walter continues to talk, dreaming of the
“elegant” car and home that he will buy for his family. He tells
Travis that on his seventeenth birthday, Travis will be able to
pick whichever college he wants to attend “and you’ll go.”
Walter proudly proclaims that he will “hand” Travis “the world!”
The possibility of achieving his dream reinvigorates Walter and
permits him to regain his identity as a worthy husband and father.
While Walter dreams of providing for his family, his dreams
nonetheless revolve around markers of material wealth, such as cars
and homes. Walter dreams of being able to offer his son “the world,”
an aspiration that centers on the power of money to overcome
racial prejudice and limitations. It's also worth noting that he
dreams of sending his son to college, though he mocks Beneatha's
ambitions to get an education. It's not education he doesn't believe
in—it's education for women.
ACT 2, SCENE 3
A week later, it is Saturday, moving day for the Youngers.
Before the curtain rises, Ruth’s joyful singing “cuts through the
silence” as she finishes the family’s packing. Beneatha enters
and Ruth happily shows her some curtains that she bought for
the new house. Ruth is exuberant and light-hearted and she
tells Beneatha how Walter has “done changed so ‘round here.”
Beaming, Ruth tells Beneatha that she and her husband went
on a date to the movies last night and even held hands.
With the opportunity to fulfill his dream, Walter has become a new
man, rededicating himself to his duties as a husband and father.
With the confidence boost that accompanied his appointment as
head of the household, Walter feels more self-assured and makes
progress towards improving his relationship with Ruth.
Walter enters, carrying a large package. Like Ruth, he is happy
and exuberant. He places the package in a corner and puts on a
record. He and Ruth begin to dance “a classic, body-melding
‘slow drag,’” which prompts Beneatha to call them “oldfashioned [Negroes].” Continuing to dance, Walter playfully
tells his sister, “Damn, even the N double A C P takes a holiday
sometimes!” Beneatha and Ruth laugh. The doorbell rings and
Beneatha answers it while Ruth and Walter continue their
“clowning.” Beneatha is “surprised” to find a white man in a
business suit at the door.
Walter lampoons his sister’s hardline views on race in a playful
manner, in contrast to the siblings’ frequent arguments earlier in the
play. The characters display a light-heartedness that was largely
unknown in the earlier parts of the play, highlighting the redemptive
power of dreams, when those dreams no longer seem entirely out of
reach.
The man tells Beneatha that he is looking for Lena Younger. She
briefly excuses herself, closes the door, and “soundlessly”
explains to the oblivious Ruth and Walter that a white man is at
the door. They stop dancing, turn off the music, and Beneatha
reopens the door to invite the man inside. Beneatha tells the
man that her mother isn’t home and Walter, “freely” and
proudly, tells the man that he looks after his mother’s “business
matters.” The man then introduces himself as Karl Lindner, a
representative of the Clybourne Park Improvement
Association. Walter is comfortable and at ease as he urges
Lindner to have a seat and offers him a drink. Shuffling his hat
and briefcase, Lindner is visibly uneasy.
Walter takes obvious pride in his new position as head of the
household, as evidenced by his proud assertion that he handles
Mama’s finances. From the Younger's actions it is clear that the
arrival of Lindner, a white man, at their door is a very unusual
circumstance, highlighting the deeply segregated nature of
Chicago’s neighborhoods.
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As Lindner sits and begins to explain the purpose of the
Clybourne Park Improvement Association, Beneatha grows
suspicious of Lindner’s explanation that the association exists
to solve “special community problems.” The double meanings of
Lindner’s statements escape Ruth and Walter, and Walter
urges his sister to be quiet and allow Lindner to speak.
Beneatha quickly interprets the double meaning in “special
community problems,” understanding that the Youngers’ move may
be seen as a “community problem” by the (white) people of
Clybourne Park. With racial issues at the forefront of her mind,
Beneatha is extremely skeptical of and sensitive to Lindner and his
mission in a way Walter and Ruth are not at first.
Seeing that Lindner still looks uncomfortable, Ruth offers
Lindner another chair to sit in, but “more frustrated than
annoyed,” he declines. With a “great breath,” he launches into a
speech about the “incidents” that have happened “when
colored people have moved into certain areas.” Lindner states
that the Clybourne Park Improvement Association is a “unique
type of organization” because “not only do we deplore that kind
of thing – but we are trying to do something about it.” This
seemingly open-minded statement piques Beneatha’s interest
and she begins to listen with “genuine interest.”
Extending the family’s hospitality, Ruth offers Lindner the chance to
make himself more comfortable. He declines, perhaps embarrassed
by the family’s dignity and politeness. When Lindner appears to
show some support of racial tolerance, Beneatha momentarily
reconsiders her assumptions about Lindner.
Lindner continues his speech, “gaining confidence in his
mission” when he sees the interest in his listeners’ faces.
Lindner explains that the “hard-working, honest” people of
Clybourne Park have “a dream of the kind of community they
want to raise their children in.” He adds that, “right or wrong,” a
man “has the right to want to have the neighborhood he lives in
a certain kind of way.” Coming to his conclusion, Lindner says
that the “overwhelming majority” of Clybourne Park believes,
“rightly or wrongly,” that “for the happiness of all concerned
that our Negro families are happier when they live in their own
communities.” He tries to convince his listeners that “race
prejudice simply doesn’t enter into” the association’s beliefs.
Lindner tarnishes the family’s dream of moving to Clybourne Park
by supporting the "dream" of the people of Clybourne Park to live in
a segregated community. In vain, Lindner attempts to distance
himself from the message that he delivers to the Youngers, telling
them that he cannot judge if Clybourne Park’s dream is “right or
wrong.” Despite Lindner’s assertion, it is clearly apparent that some
sort of race prejudice does factor into Clybourne Park’s decision,
otherwise why would he be there at all?
With this evidence of Lindner’s true motive in visiting the
family, Beneatha bitterly denounces the so-called “Welcoming
Committee.” Walter is “dumbfounded.” Lindner adds that the
association is willing “to buy the house from you at a financial
gain to your family.” Walter and Ruth are both appalled, and
Walter tells Lindner to leave the apartment. Seeing the “hostile
faces” of the Youngers, Lindner questions what the family
hopes to gain “by moving into a neighborhood where you just
aren’t wanted.” Before he exits, Lindner places his card on the
table, in case the family changes its decision.
The family collectively maintains its pride by resoundingly rejecting
Lindner’s degrading offer. Fortified by dignity, they refuse to sell their
pride in exchange for money. The family refuses to succumb to racial
prejudice, although Lindner’s closing words hang ominously in the
air after he exits.
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Mama and Travis enter the apartment. “Smiling,” Beneatha says
that Mama had a “caller,” and Beneatha, Walter, and Ruth
“saucily” and playfully relate the story of Lindner’s visit. Visibly
concerned by this news, Mama tends to her plant and asks
whether Lindner threatened the family. Beneatha explains that
Lindner’s efforts were much more subtle than that,
summarizing his remarks as, “Everybody ought to learn how to
sit down and hate each other with good Christian fellowship.”
Mama carefully tends to her plant, showing her concern for the
survival of the family’s dream following Lindner’s visit. While the
rest of the family makes light of Lindner’s visit, Mama worries about
the physical dangers that may await the family in Clybourne Park.
Beneatha's joke highlights the utter hypocrisy of Lindner's efforts.
Beneatha “laughingly” notices that Mama is carefully tending to
her plant during this conversation. She asks Mama what she is
doing, and Mama replies that she is fixing her plant so that it
will survive the upcoming move. Beneatha is shocked that
Mama plans to take “that raggedy-looking old thing” to the new
house, to which Mama wittily snaps back, “It expresses ME!”
This conversation recalls an earlier exchange between Beneatha
and Mama regarding Beneatha’s hobbies. For Mama, the plant
represents the family’s perseverance and dedication to its deferred
dreams. She takes great pride in its dogged survival, which
symbolizes her own strength, her efforts to express herself through
the survival and thriving of her family.
Walter comes over to Mama and bends down, squeezing her in
a tight embrace. Mama is “overwhelmed” but “delighted” by this
unexpected show of affection, “gruffly” but very happily telling
Walter to leave her alone while she tends to her plant. Walter
“sweetly” and “playfully” begins to sing, and Ruth brings Mama
the package that Walter carried in earlier. They tell Mama to
open the package, which she does slowly, carefully lifting out
“one by one” a “brand-new” set of gardening tools. Mama is
deeply touched by the gift from Walter, Ruth, and Beneatha,
which is the first gift that she has received in her life “without
its being Christmas.” Mama is delighted that she won’t have to
use “knives and forks” as gardening tools anymore.
Mama is deeply touched by the gift of gardening tools, which she
hopes to use to make a small garden at the family’s new house. The
tools represent just how close Mama is to finally realizing her long
deferred dream. Mama finally has the proper tools with which to
tend to her garden and houseplant, and she will use them with pride
to help her garden thrive. Similarly, Mama hopes that the new house
will provide the right setting in which the Youngers’ themselves can
grow and prosper.
Travis eagerly asks his father if he can give Mama his gift, and
Walter agrees. “Racing back” with a large hatbox, Travis proudly
presents Mama with a “very elaborate, wide gardening hat.”
The adults are overcome with laughter at the sight of the hat.
Out of concern for Travis’ feelings, Mama defends the gift,
telling her grandson that it is “the prettiest hat I ever owned.”
When Mama puts on the hat, Walter tells her that she looks like
she is “ready to go out and chop you some cotton.”
Travis takes pride in his gift for Mama, although he misses the
implications of the large, elaborate gardening hat. Walter’s
comment on the hat points to the racial stereotypes that the hat
encompasses.
The doorbell rings and Beneatha heads to her room to continue
packing. Mama and Travis go to exit. Walter sings to himself and
throws open the door to reveal Bobo, a “very slight” man with
“haunted frightened eyes.” Walter asks Bobo where Willy
Harris is, and Bobo responds that he isn’t with him. Walter
remains jubilant and is unfazed by this news, but Ruth is
already “a mood apart,” standing “stiffly” in the background and
somehow sensing “death.”
Seeing the “haunted” look in Bobo’s eyes, Ruth perceptively senses
that his arrival heralds the “death” of the family’s dreams. Walter,
singularly focused on the near fulfillment of his own dream, misses
the signs.
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In a bumbling and tentative manner, Bobo begins to explain to
Walter that he has “a real bad feeling” about the investment
that they made with Willy Harris. Bobo tells Walter that Harris
never showed up yesterday morning to make the planned trip
to Springfield to obtain a liquor license. In tears, Bobo explains
to an increasingly angry Walter that Harris disappeared
without a trace. In shock, Walter anxiously tries to imagine
different scenarios that would explain Harris’ absence. Walter
desperately looks to his horrified wife and grabs Bobo by the
collar and shakes him.
At first, Walter refuses to fully accept Bobo’s news, clinging to the
hope that Willy Harris has a reasonable excuse for his absence at
the train station. Ruth gradually realizes the extent of the loss, and
Walter begins to process Bobo’s story. For Walter, the loss of the
money represents more than just the loss of the money—it
represents his failure to live up to the responsibility and role he'd
been craving. Rather than support his family, he has financially
ruined it.
Fully recognizing the implications of Willy’s disappearance,
Walter breaks down, “crying out for Willy and looking for him
or perhaps for help from God.” Walter falls to the floor and
sobs, pounding the ground with his fists. Mama and Beneatha
enter from the bedroom. Walter screams, “THAT MONEY IS
MADE OUT OF MY FATHER’S FLESH.” Bobo watches him
helplessly and then exits.
Humiliated and desperate, Walter begins to spiral out of control.
The insurance money represented Big Walter’s ultimate sacrifice for
the family. Walter senses that he destroyed his father’s dream for
the family’s future with the blind pursuit of his own misguided
ambition.
Mama goes to Walter and asks him if all of the insurance
money is in fact gone. Walter admits that he never went to the
bank and never placed the money for Beneatha’s schooling into
a savings account. Mama stands quietly in disbelief, looking at
her son “without recognition.” Suddenly, she begins to beat him
“senselessly.” Beneatha intervenes and pulls her mother away
from Walter. Mama tells her children how she watched Big
Walter “killing himself” to provide for his family, telling Walter
that he just “gave it all away in a day.” Mama looks up and asks
God for “strength.”
Mama laments that Walter squandered his father’s sacrifice, which
Big Walter earned for the family by practically working himself to
death. She is legitimately angered by the fact that Walter selfishly
used all the money to fund his own ill-advised dream without saving
any money for Beneatha’s dream. And, in her anger, she touches on
how Walter has failed to live up to his father's example, has failed to
be a man.
ACT 3
An hour later, Walter’s loss of the insurance money fills the
apartment with “a sullen light of gloom.” Asagai enters the
apartment to visit Beneatha, who is deeply upset about the lost
money. Beneatha explains the situation to Asagai and he asks
her how she is doing. Beneatha responds, “Me? . . . Me, I’m
nothing.” She then recounts the story behind her initial desire
to become a doctor, telling Asagai of a childhood friend who
was severely injured in a sledding accident. Beneatha tells
Asagai that she was amazed that “one person could . . . sew up
the problem, make him all right again,” although she states that
she has now lost her youthful idealism.
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With the loss of the money to fund her dream, Beneatha appears to
have lost her pride in her identity, which was intimately tied to her
dream of becoming a doctor. Without her dream to anchor her
identity, Beneatha is unmoored and disparages her youthful hope
and idealism.
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Asagai tries to convince Beneatha of the value of idealism, but
she rejects his arguments. She mocks Asagai’s dream for
African independence, asking him about what comes after
freedom: “What about all the crooks . . . who will come into
power and steal and plunder the same as before – only now
they will be black and do it in the name of the new
Independence.” When Asagai responds, “That will be a problem
for another time,” Beneatha refuses his answer and rejects his
idealistic belief in human progress.
Having lost her own dream, Beneatha attacks Asagai’s idealistic
dream for African independence. With her cynical statement on
African freedom, Beneatha anticipates the problems that many
newly formed African nations did face. Instead of celebrating her
African heritage, Beneatha now focuses on the problems that will
plague a free Africa.
Beneatha laments that with the loss of the insurance money
her dream for the future has been stolen “right out of my
hands.” Asagai asks Beneatha whether the money was hers,
inquiring more specifically whether she earned it or would have
received it if Big Walter hadn’t died. When Beneatha says no,
Asagai states that there is “something wrong in a house – in a
world – where all dreams, good or bad, must depend on the
death of a man.”
Asagai raises the important distinction between money that is
earned and money that is simply inherited. He criticizes Beneatha’s
overemphasis on money that she did not earn and scolds her for
hitching her dream, however noble, to the death of her father.
When Beneatha accuses Asagai of being unable to provide an
argument in favor of idealism, Asagai shouts, “I LIVE THE
ANSWER!” He tells Beneatha that violence and revolution may
well be the price of independence. He presents Beneatha with
a hypothetical situation in which he holds political office in an
independent Nigeria, explaining that murder at the hands of
“my own black countrymen” would constitute “an advance” over
murder by white colonial forces.
By using himself as an example, Asagai explains to Beneatha that
progress occurs in starts and stops, encouraging her to hold on to
her dream despite this recent setback. He explains that a free
Nigeria – even if it still contains violence, even if it kills him – will
constitute progress towards a better future.
“Rather quietly,” Asagai suggests that Beneatha “come home”
with him. At first, Beneatha mistakenly believes that Asagai is
merely asking her to come to his apartment and, exasperated,
she dismisses his ill-timed suggestion. Asagai quickly clarifies
his meaning, adding, “I mean across the ocean: home – to
Africa.” Beneatha is amazed by Asagai’s offer, which is
tantamount to a marriage proposal. Asagai says, “In time, we
will pretend that – you have only been away [from Africa] for a
day.” He embraces Beneatha and passionately kisses her.
Suddenly, she pulls away, overwhelmed by the events of the
day. Beneatha tells Asagai that she needs time to consider his
proposal. He exits, leaving her with her thoughts.
Beneatha is touched but overwhelmed by Asagai’s unexpected
proposal. Although she takes great interest in her African roots, her
initial confusion over Asagai’s meaning of “home” may signal that
she does not go so far as to imagine Africa as her home.
Additionally, the implied marriage proposal complicates Beneatha’s
dreams, which prioritize her ambition to become a doctor over
marriage.
Walter enters from the bedroom and “feverishly” begins to look
for something. Filled with disgust for her brother, Beneatha
launches into a “monologue of insult,” mockingly calling Walter
an entrepreneur. Walter ignores her comments and finally finds
a small white card. He puts the card in his pocket and rushes
out the door.
Beneatha uses her brother’s irresponsibility with money as a
weapon with which to further diminish his self-esteem. She
lampoons Walter’s aspirations of material wealth and power.
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Ruth enters, followed shortly by Mama. Mama seems “lost.” She
picks up her plant from the table and returns it to its former
spot by the window. She asks Ruth or Beneatha to call the
moving company and cancel their move. Mama remembers
how people “down home” in the South used to call her a “highminded thing” and tell her that she “aimed too high all the time.”
Ruth tries to convince Mama to go ahead with the move,
desperately telling Mama that she will “strap my baby to my
back . . . and scrub all the floors in America” if that’s what it
takes to keep the new house. Mama “absently” refuses, saying,
“No – I sees things differently now.”
Returning the plant in its usual place by the window, Mama signals
that she has given in to the dissolution of her dream and resigned
herself to the fact that the family will remain in the apartment. With
the loss of the money, Mama loses both her dream and her sense of
pride, stating that she simply “aimed too high.” Mama references the
people who found her too “high-minded,” recalling Mrs. Johnson
assimilationist perspective. Ruth offers to make tremendous
sacrifices to make the family’s dream a reality.
Walter reenters and tells Mama, Ruth, and Beneatha that he
made a phone call to “The Man.” Beneatha realizes that Walter
is referring to Karl Lindner and questions Walter about the call.
Walter states that the family is “going to do business with him.”
Walter begins a speech about the divisions in life between “the
takers and the ‘tooken.’” Walter says that the Youngers, part of
the “tooken,” are “all mixed up” because of their preoccupation
with “the right and the wrong.” He sarcastically thanks Willy
Harris for teaching him how “to keep my eye on what counts in
this world,” by which he means money.
Walter’s speech recalls his earlier assertion that money is “life.” He
emphasizes the overriding importance of money, which he believes
carries more weight than moral distinctions between right and
wrong. He resents his status as part of the “tooken” and is willing to
sacrifice his pride in order to become a “taker.” Walter covets the
control and power that “takers” exert over the world.
Still in denial of Walter’s intentions in calling Lindner, Ruth
again asks Walter about the phone call. Walter says that he told
Lindner to come back to the apartment, telling Ruth that he
plans to “put on a show” for the white man. The women grasp
Walter’s purpose for calling Lindner, and Mama tells her son
that he is “making something inside me cry.” Mama implores
Walter to reconsider and uphold the family’s pride, saying, “I
come from five generations of people who was slaves and
sharecroppers – but ain’t nobody in my family never let nobody
pay 'em no money that was a way of telling us we wasn’t fit to
walk the earth.”
Mama mourns her son’s decision to sacrifice his and the family’s
pride for financial gain. She laments his decision to accept Lindner’s
humiliating, prejudiced offer, which also signals Walter’s implicit
acceptance of racial stereotypes. Mama invokes the generations of
slaves and sharecroppers who, despite their dire financial straits, at
least maintained their pride in the face of crippling racial
discrimination.
Walter protests, shouting, “I didn’t make this world! It was give
to me this way!” He asserts that he is a “man” and, as such, he
wants the ability to financially support his family. He gives his
family a preview of the “show” that he plans to put on for
Lindner, dropping to his knees and “groveling” in an “anguished
imitation” of a “slow-witted movie stereotype.” He says that he
will tell Lindner to “just gi’ ussen de money . . . [and] we’s ain’t
gwine come out deh and dirty up yo’ white folks neighborhood.”
His family looking on in horror, Walter then “breaks down” and
goes to his bedroom.
Walter’s pained imitation of an African-American stereotype marks
his complete loss of dignity and shows the lengths to which he will
go in order to obtain Lindner’s money. Walter declares his manhood
but nonetheless behaves childishly and cowardly. He resents that as
an African American man in mid-century Chicago he is unable to
fulfill the mainstream male role as a financial provider for his family.
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Beneatha sneers that Walter is “not a man . . . but a toothless
rat.” Mama asks Beneatha if she is “mourning” her brother’s loss
of pride, to which Beneatha answers that Walter is “no brother”
of hers. Mama scolds Beneatha’s lack of compassion, telling
Beneatha that she should love Walter the most when he is “at
his lowest and can’t believe in hisself ‘cause the world done
whipped him so!” Mama tells Beneatha to mourn her brother,
not the insurance money that he lost.
Mama criticizes Beneatha for her lack of empathy and for placing
concerns about her own dream before concerns about Walter’s
debilitating loss of pride. She urges Beneatha to release her anger
and love her brother, hoping that the family’s love can repair the
damage that the world – and racial prejudice – has done to Walter.
Travis runs into the room and says that the moving men have
arrived. A moment later, Lindner appears at the door. Ruth
“mechanically” goes to the bedroom and tells Walter that
Lindner has arrived. After a long pause, Walter enters the living
room. Lindner efficiently arranges the contract on the table
while Walter moves “slowly and awkwardly . . . like a small boy.”
Ruth tells Travis to go downstairs, but Mama orders Travis to
stay put so that Walter can “make him understand what you
doing. . . . You show him where our five generations dome come
to.”
Walter’s boyish demeanor when greeting Lindner represents the loss
of manhood that has been brought about by Walter’s decision to
sacrifice his pride. Mama’s demand that Travis witness Walter’s
decision to accept Lindner’s bribe is a last-ditch attempt to appeal
to Walter’s sense of dignity. In the presence of his son, the next
generation, Mama hopes that Walter will honor the sacrifices of
earlier generations and show that same pride even in terrible
circumstances.
Walter begins his conversation with Lindner meekly, telling him
that the Youngers “are very plain people.” Looking down at his
feet, Walter tells Lindner that his father, Big Walter, was a
laborer. Lindner, “absolutely confused” by the point of Walter’s
comments, focuses on the contract. Suddenly, Walter stares at
Lindner and assumes a “sudden intensity.” He tells Lindner that
his father once “almost beat a man to death” for calling him “a
bad name.” Lindner is utterly confused. Gaining confidence,
Walter continues, stating firmly, “What I mean is that we come
from people who had a lot of pride.” He adds that his sister
Beneatha plans to become a doctor.
And though Walter begins slowly and meekly, as he tells Lindner
about the accomplishments of his family, he gradually gains
confidence, evidenced by his ability to look Lindner in the eye.
Remembering the pride that Big Walter took in his racial identity,
Walter begins to revise his decision to accept Lindner’s offer. Walter
even celebrates Beneatha’s dream to become a doctor, a marked
change from his earlier criticism of his sister’s ambition.
Calling Travis to him, Walter stands proudly behind his son and
tells Lindner that Travis “makes the sixth generation of our
family in this country.” Walter reaches the climax of his speech,
telling Lindner, “We have decided to move into our house
because my father – my father – he earned it for us brick by
brick.” Walter adds that the family doesn’t want “to make no
trouble . . . or fight no causes,” and he rejects Lindner’s money.
In vain, Lindner appeals to Mama to ask Walter to reconsider.
As the family stares at Walter Lee in awe, Lindner exits, saying,
“I sure hope you people know what you’re getting into.”
In a hugely transformative moment, Walter reaffirms his and the
family’s pride and, further, by referencing the six generations of his
family to live in America he asserts that he is as American (and,
likely, more American) than Lindner himself. He also identifies the
house as the fulfillment of his father's dream, and moving to the
house is thus something earned (recall Asagai's comment to
Beneatha earlier in Act 3) and not something inherited. Walter's
comment that the family won’t “fight no causes” distances the
family from more radical factions of the civil rights movement.
Walter is saying that the family will be good neighbors to the white
people of Clybourne Park, but he is also asserting their right to be
neighbors of those white people.
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“Coming to life,” Mama and Ruth fly into action, making the final
preparations for the family’s move to Clybourne Park. They
“deliberately” try to ignore “the nobility” of Walter’s decision,
focusing instead on the task at hand. Beneatha excitedly tells
Mama that Asagai proposed to her that afternoon, but in the
busyness of the moment Mama brushes off the conversation.
Walter picks up the conversation and tells Beneatha that she
should marry “a man with some loot.” Beneatha and Walter exit
while arguing with each other.
Interestingly, the family’s reserved dignity prevents it from taking
excessive pride in Walter’s decision. They wordlessly and internally
celebrate his moral victory without shamelessly celebrating the
moment. Walter’s insistence that Beneatha marry someone with
money signals that the family still has its disagreements and also
shows Walter’s continued preoccupation with money. Not
everything has been fixed. Not everything is perfect. But they still
have their pride, and they still have each other.
Making final preparations to leave the apartment, Mama
references Walter’s confrontation with Lindner, asking Ruth,
“He finally come into his manhood today, didn’t he?” Biting her
lip to contain her own pride in Walter, Ruth agrees that he did.
Ruth exits, leaving Mama alone in the apartment. Mama looks
around at the family’s home and, overcome with emotion,
stifles a cry. She exits the apartment only to reenter a moment
later, retrieving her plant and leaving for the final time.
Ruth and Mama take great pride in Walter’s moral victory over
racial prejudice, recognizing that his decision marks his
transformation into a man. Mama’s decision to take the plant to
Clybourne Park symbolizes a new beginning for the family’s dreams,
but also hints at continued struggles for the family at its new home.
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To cite any of the quotes from A Raisin in the Sun covered in the
Quotes section of this LitChart:
HOW T
TO
O CITE
To cite this LitChart:
MLA
MLA
Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. Vintage. 2004.
Jumper, Alexandra. "A Raisin in the Sun." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC,
17 Oct 2013. Web. 21 Apr 2020.
CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL
Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. New York: Vintage. 2004.
CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL
Jumper, Alexandra. "A Raisin in the Sun." LitCharts LLC, October
17, 2013. Retrieved April 21, 2020. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/
a-raisin-in-the-sun.
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